War of the Stolen
by randomblueboots
Summary: Aspen Victoria Elaina Stark is not quite like any other twenty-eight-year-old woman. She has quite the strange family and practically runs her father's business. But war is coming, and Aspen will have to set aside differences and pride to work with her cousins, friends, and acquaintances, (some she despises), to save her father and all her aunts and uncles before it's too late.
1. Prologue

_PROLOGUE_

_Where he was, it was dark, but it was quiet. He could wait for years upon years in that cold and silent place. And he had. How long had it been since he had been put there? Centuries? Or maybe just a day? He didn't know, but it had felt like a lifetime. He floated peacefully through the black space, aware of every feeling, though there was no pain. There was never pain in the Realm above all the Realms, as he called it. There was never pain there, but there was unquenchable rage. _

_The Realm above all the Realms was totally dark, and he floated through as though he were in water. It felt like he was in space, though in this realm there were no stars, planets, or suns. There was nothing to light his way, and there was nothing for him to do except watch. For from the Realm above all the Realms he could watch whoever he wanted in whatever realm he wanted, and he watched Odin. Then he watched Odin's sons. He watched as they grew up together. He watched as the younger found out about his true family, and he watched as the elder became a hero. __**Oh, Odin. **__He thought, smiling down at the sons, __**What a fool you've been. **_

_He saw many glorious battles, and he saw the elder and the younger both make friends and have incredible victories, and they lived happily. Both the elder and the younger married, and they each had three beautiful children. He could call them all by name. He watched as the elder and the younger's friends married and had children as well. First: The man made of iron had two daughters, one who was incredibly smart, and the other with amazing powers. Then: The Archer and the Assassin Married. They had a son, and soon came a daughter. Then: the Captain and his wife had a son, followed by a daughter, and then twin boys. __**Such gifts to a man of his age. **__He thought. __**It's a pity I will have to destroy them all. **__Lastly: The monster and his bride had three children as well, Two sons and a beautiful daughter. And all of them, including the eldest and youngest sons of Odin, lived happily. Their children grew strong and did well in their short lives. He would not have to wait much longer._

_He waited in the starless darkness of the Realm above all the Realms. He watched, and plotted. He knew his time was coming. For the defenders of earth who called themselves the Avengers grew old and frail, as all humans did. And he was immortal, stronger than anything, the most powerful of all the gods. And in this realm he grew more and more powerful everyday, for there was great rage within his heart. __**Oh, Odin. It is too bad you won't be alive to see your children and their friends suffer. For you have made such a terrible mistake. **_


	2. Chapter 1 Catching a Spy

_Aspen Victoria Elaina Stark_

Last night she had dreamed that she was flying. Her hair whipped in the wind, her eyes stung as she flew through the clouds. She was free, so free, and it was an amazing feeling, to have not one care in the world. Dreams, were funny that way, especially hers. How ironic they were.

Because, instead of flying, Aspen Victoria was in and out of meetings all day. Finances, supply and demand, manufacturing... blah blah blah. Mostly, she just wondered how her father could have hired Martin Pullman to be the financial advisor. He was the most boring person on the face of the planet, and finances were the most boring thing on the face of the planet. So the two combined were awful. _We're billionaires, who the hell cares what the exact number is. _Aspen rolled her eyes. Her mother would probably have had a heart attack if she'd ever said that to her, but then again, everyone said she took after her father. _"You received your mother's looks and your father's brain." _

At least all this boring crap was topped off with an exciting party at the casino. She had commanded it. Of course, since she was spending company money she was obligated to invite everyone so even Boring Pullman had to go, but she could just ignore them all and find herself a bar and just relax. Her phone suddenly rang. She looked down at caller ID and smiled at all her employees.

"I'm sorry, Mr. Pullman, I'm a very busy woman. I'm going to have to take this call. Keep on going without me. Miss Karson is writing it all down anyways." Aspen dashed out of the conference room and hit answer. "Thank the Lord, Maggie! You just saved my brain from being fried by the boring finances that fill that conference room."

"Did I interrupted the right meeting?" Maggie gasped. "I was afraid I called at the wrong time and it was the interesting one about engineering."

"You called at the perfect time, he was just starting to talk about the cost of building a new branch in Texas. I'm so done with this crap."

"Spoken like a true Stark." Aspen could almost see Maggie's grin.

"What's going on over there?" Aspen asked.

"Oh, the usual. Dad's showing off his gray beard and telling everyone he looks like Odin, Uncle Loki is laughing at everyone because he doesn't have any gray hair, Uncle Steve and Aunt Maria are talking about the latest letter they got from Noah, the twins are continuously sparring, Uncle Bruce is teaching Elsa Jean about random lab-stuff, Danny's still gone, Eric still doesn't know what he's going to do with his life, Mom and Aunt Joy are complaining about Uncle Loki and Dad bragging about their hair, Irina's shooting everyone with her stupid fake arrows, Uncle Clint is laughing at everyone who gets shot with said fake arrows, Katie's training with Finley and Helena, (they're all super good at martial arts, like every kind), Jordan got arrested again, and Aunt Tasha and Alexei are on a mission somewhere."

"Wait. Jordan got what?!"

"Arrested."

"Again!?"

"Yes." Maggie sighed. "My stupid cousin is doing his stupid graffiti again."

"Great. What now?"

"You know the 'Imagine' mosaic in Central Park?"

"Yeah?"

"He painted it as Captain America's shield."

"Oh my god, that's hilarious!" Aspen laughed.

"Miss Stark?" One of her employees peaked out from the meeting room, "Mr. Pullman was wondering if you'll be joining us again."

"No, this is an emergency. Tell Miss Karson to keep writing it down. I've got to go and take care of this. My cousin was arrested."

"Oh, that's horrible." Jan frowned.

"Yes, it really is quite horrible. I have to go get him out."

"Well, good luck."

"Thank you. It's really a shame..." Aspen pretended to wipe away a tear. Jan hurried back into the room as Aspen hurried down the hall towards the elevator to get to the parking garage.

"You do know that Uncle Tony bailed him out already?"

"Yeah, I figured, but you just got me out of the most boring meetings ever for the entire day. You're a really great person, M."

"You do know, that they'll catch on to you sooner or later. They know you take after your father. They remember what he was like."

"Please, that was like eighty years ago."

"You're dad's only sixty-eight, Penni." Maggie rolled her eyes.

"So? Isn't that ancient?" If Uncle Steve were here he'd roll his eyes and say, _"You're just like your father."_

"I'm pretty sure Uncle Steve qualifies as Ancient. Your dad does not."

"Okay, okay, but still. It was a long time ago. No one works here that remembers him." Aspen climbed into her sports car and flipped her hair over her shoulder.

"I seriously doubt that." Maggie frowned.

"Well, whatever. They can think what they want. It's not going to change who I am."

"Okay, whatever you say, Pen. Where are you headed now that I got you off the hook?"

"Umm... I think I'm going to go home and to the lab."

"Of course you are. You're not going to have some fun? Party?"

"Going to the lab is my kind of party." Aspen sighed as she drove her car out of the parking garage and onto the streets.

"Right, I keep forgetting that you're an incredible inventor of great renown." Aspen could almost see Maggie roll her eyes.

"Hey, I may not be famous for my own work yet, but I am working on it. I've already started isolating-"

"Right, well, I'm not really great at that sort of thing, so explain it to your dad because-'

"Aspen?!"

"Hey, Dad! What's up?"

"Aren't you supposed to be in a meeting?" Aspen's father sounded tired. She wondered if he had been getting any sleep since she had been away.

"Well, technically speaking, yes..."

"That's my girl." Aspen heard her father's voice lighten up and she smiled.

"Dad, have you been getting any sleep?" Aspen asked.

"Umm... Well, actually..."

"Dad. Have you been getting any sleep?"

"No... not since you left."

"Oh my god." Aspen sighed. _How can he not just sleep? _She knew when he was alone in the apartment her father was plagued by nightmares. Of course, her solution, since Essie was in school, was to get one of her cousins or Aunts or Uncles to stay with him. Unfortunately her father refused help. "When's Essie's break?" Aspen asked.

"Starts tomorrow."

"Well, good. And I'll be home tomorrow too, okay?"

"Yes." Tony nodded.

"Dad, please _try _and get some sleep." Aspen begged.

"Okay, I'll try. Look, when you get back I've got a surprise for you, okay?"

"Yeah?" Aspen smiled.

"Yeah, you'll love it."

"Alright! I'll see you tomorrow, Dad."

"Yup. I love you, Penni."

"Love you too." The phone was handed back to Maggie.

"Your dad's awesome. If I skipped out on something important my dad would probably tan my hide, with mjolnir."

"You haven't ever tried, so how would you know?"

"You're right, I'm too good. I need to add some spice to my life."

"Ooh... Gonna find yourself a bad boy, huh?"

"No. Uncle Steve would kill him before dad could ever meet him."

"Yeah..." Aspen frowned. "What are you going to do then?"

"Probably just... I dunno..."

"Well, I've got to go. I'm just getting home now. I'll be catching a flight home tomorrow afternoon, okay?"

"Sounds cool! I'll see you then!"

"Alright, tell Maddie I can't wait to see her."

"Alrighty-ho! Bye!"

"Bye!"

* * *

><p><em>Maggie Frigga Odinson<em>

"Well!" She hung up and looked over to where her brother was reading a giant encyclopedia. "What are you doing?" She asked.

"Reading."

"Why?"

"I dunno. It's more interesting than the conversation you just had."

"Oh shut up."

"MADDIE! MAGGIE!" Maggie rolled her eyes. Her father did not sound pleased.

"Yeah!?"

"The shower drain is clogged AGAIN!"

"Dad, that's so not our fault. You have just as much hair as we do and you use twice as much shampoo and conditioner!" Maddie shouted from her bedroom. Niel snorted.

"It's true." Maggie glared.

"Right, and I'm Odin."

"Please, you _know _Dad uses like a gallon of shampoo a week." Niel looked up from his book, his bright blue eyes glaring at her.

"Yes, I do _know _that. It doesn't mean I'm going to take your side."

"Wow. Just Wow." Maggie glared at her brother. He ran his fingers through his dark hair as he returned to his book.

"MADDIE, MAGGIE!" Thor stood with his arms crossed in the entrance to the hallway. You could almost see electricity sparking in his eyes. Maggie frowned. "There shall be no more yelling across the house." He glared. "You must come and clean the bathtub."

"I-"

"NOW."

"Alright, I'm coming." Maggie followed her father to the master bathroom, where her mother was already showing Maddie how to clean out the drain.

"Oh God." Maddie glared. "This is horrible."

"Was that Aspen you were talking to, dear?" Jane asked.

"Yeah."

"Really?" Maddie looked up eagerly. "Why didn't you call me?"

"It was just to get her out of her silly meeting again."

"Oh. Okay."

"But she reminded me to say hi." Maggie smiled.

"Oh! Good."

"She's coming home tomorrow."

"Really?"

"Yeah. She has a flight tomorrow afternoon."

"Did you warn her about Pepper being home?" Jane asked.

"Nah. Her Dad came barging in on our conversation while I was in the family room and told her. That's why I came back here."

"Who else is in the family room?" Maddie asked. Maggie shrugged,

"Umm... If Uncle Clint and Irina had been there I wouldn't have been, so they weren't... I think Eric and Elsa Jean were there, but.. I wasn't paying attention- Oh. Josh and James were. They were playing the x-box."

"Oh. Okay." Maggie stood to leave.

"Maggie, where are you going?" Her mother sat up straight and put her hands on her hips.

"Ummm..."

"Get back over here and help your sister." Maggie groaned,

"Mom..."

"You still live in this house so you are going to abide by my rules, and right now you're helping your sister."

"Augh..." Maggie rolled her eyes.

* * *

><p><em>Alexei Andrew Romanoff-Barton<em>

Seattle was actually pretty nice, despite the weather. He'd heard things about Seattle's weather that had made him wince. _How can one live in a place where there's nearly no end to rain. _But it turned out to be an exaggeration. Because, Alexei came to Seattle on a beautiful sunny day in June. He had everything he needed to get to work that evening, his VIP pass to the Casino Party Stark Industries was throwing, his suit, and weapons that were easily concealed in a suit. He was excited about this mission, partially because it was his first mission on solo, and also it was the first mission he'd ever done where he'd have to assume some sort of fake identity. He'd taken plenty of missions from Coulson, and then his Aunt Maria, but none were as exciting as this one in Seattle.

Exploring Seattle that afternoon was amazing, and he took plenty of pictures to show his baby sister. Irina was always so curious about far away places, but hadn't officially started training to be an agent yet, so she hadn't been out of State. But Alexei always brought home pictures for her, and she hung them all up on her wall. _"Someday I'm going to go there too, Alyosha." _She's say, _"And When I do I'll get to see them all for myself. I'll have tons of fun, and I'll meet new people." _

Alexei smiled thinking about Irina. He remembered when his parents first told him they were going to have another baby. He had been three, it was the earliest memory he could recall. His father, he knew, had always wanted more kids, but his mother had been very hesitant. She loved Alexei, but Tasha had seen things in the world that had darkened her heart. She feared nothing more than raising children in a world that was in pieces. Alexei had heard the same conversation throughout his whole childhood, most of the time by accident.

_Are we doing the right thing? This world is so full of pain and hate. I've seen it, Clint. Are we raising our children right, are we doing the right thing by bringing them into this horrible world._

_Tasha, this world may be in pieces, but by bringing children, innocent souls, into it and raising them to what we know is right we are making it a better place bit by bit. _

He was sure it was this very conversation that convinced his mother to try for another baby before Irina came to be. Alexei admired his sister's skill and loved her for her innocence and naïve personality. She as very much like their father, and Alexei knew, he was very much like his mother.

"Excuse me, sir, do you have the time?"

"The time-" Alexei stopped, his Russian accent was showing through, and he cleared his throat, "The time?" He looked down at his watch. "Five o'clock, Miss." She smiled.

"Thank you!" And hurried about her business. Alexei looked down at the watch again. _Shit. It's five already? I've got to get back and get ready for a party. _He caught a cab back to his hotel where he went up the stairs to his room to take a shower. The warm water washed away the grime and sweat from his flight and wanderings through the city from his body and ginger hair. When he was done he wrapped himself in a towel and returned to the confines of his room to get dressed and comb his hair.

"_Zdrastvooyte_, _syn_." A woman stood in the corner, her arms crossed, her graying hair pulled back into a thick pony tail.

"SHIT!" Alexei jumped aside, and began cursing in Russian.

"Watch your mouth, Alexei Clintovich!"

"Mom! What are you doing here?"

"I'm here to help."

"Help?! Did Aunt Maria send you?! I don't need help! I'm fine!"

"Our informant is dead." Natasha frowned.

"What?!"

"I'm sorry, Alexei, but we have to work together if we're going to catch this man. Okay?"

"But-"

"Look, get dressed, and then I'll fill you in. Okay?"

"Alright, but-"

"Go." Alexei nodded. _How come, every time I think I'll finally get the chance to prove myself it's ruined by some sort of silly circumstance?_

* * *

><p>"Invitation, please." The man at the door held out his hand. Alexei handed him his fake invite.<p>

"Andrew Miller?"

"Yeah, I work in engineering."

"Really? I haven't seen you around very much." The man said.

"No, I'm new."

"And Miss Stark invited you?"

"She invited him because he's my son."

"And you are?" Natasha handed the guard her invitation.

"Patricia Miller. I am one of Stark Industries greatest investors."

"Really?" The young man smiled, "It's a pleasure to meet you Mrs. Miller."

"Please, That's my mother-in-law. I am Patricia." Natasha smiled brightly. Alexei stared at her in awe. He had never seen his mother this way before. He had never seen her as an incredibly talented actress, but it seemed like she was.

"Well, come on in. I'm sure Miss Stark would love to see you." _Well that's not happening. _If Aspen saw them she would be horrified. She would know something was wrong. Aspen wasn't a spy, and she didn't work for SHIELD, but she wasn't an idiot. She would know something was up.

"So, who's the guy we're looking for?" Natasha asked, looking over at her son.

"His name here is Martin Pullman, we're not sure what his real name is but we know he's a Russian Spy stealing Stark Industry secrets. Right now, according to SHIELD surveillance Stark Industries is working on some new form of energy that could be used to power missiles with a far greater destruction percentage than nuclear weapons. No offense to our home country, but with SHIELD and some of Russia's organizations going at each other them getting their hands on this technology could be potentially the worst thing to happen since HYDRA."

"If those Russian organizations get their hands on this energy source they could start the next World War, with SHIELD right in the center." Tasha frowned.

"Yeah, so, stopping Martin Pullman and finding out what he knows is probably the best solution." Alexei frowned.

"Alright, should we split up?"

"Yeah. How about you scope out the east end of the casino, and I scope out the west end? Avoid Aspen at all costs. She'll know something is up. It's better that she didn't. You know what Starks usually do when something is wrong in their immediate vicinity." Tasha smirked. It was an ongoing joke in their family that any Stark would accidentally die to save their friends or family.

"We don't need that drama." she laughed.

"But seriously, mom, Aspen can't know we're here. She might think we're spying on her for Uncle Tony or something equally ridiculous, which would just alert our target. And if she does come to the conclusion that something is wrong she'll be worried. We don't need to worry her more than necessary. This should be simple." Alexei sighed.

"Right. Got it."

"If one of us catches Pullman we've got to somehow..."

"If one of us catches Pullman we kidnap him and interrogate him somewhere where he'll never be found."

"Mom, that's-"

"That's the plan. Go."

"Mom!" But Tasha was already walked casually towards the other end of the room, her black dress swishing gently around her knees and her heels clacking gently on the tiles. He knew she hated heels. Whenever his mother was wearing heels he knew it was important business. He sighed, and spun around to find himself face to face with Miss Aspen Stark, billionaire, genius, engineer, and co-owner of Stark Industries. Her mouth dropped open and she gasped out his name,

"Barton?!"

_Oh boy..._


	3. Chapter 2 Shh! It's a Surprise!

_Noah Anthony Rogers_

He stared out over the expanse of New York City, looking down at the Empire State Building, the Chrysler Building, and Avengers Tower: the three most famous skyscrapers in all New York. _Home. You're home. _He smiled, folding his last letter from his sister and placing it in his pocket as they began their descent into the city. He had been out at sea for six months, and then even after that he was in San Diego for another five. It had been almost a year since he had seen his father, mother, sister, and brothers.

"You going home?" The woman sitting next to him asked.

"Yes." Noah nodded. "At last."

"Family waiting for you?"

"Yes. Lots."

"Oh, I'm glad. Thank you for serving."

"It's my honor." Noah smiled.

"You know, you look very familiar." _Oh, here it is... _

"Yeah, a lot of people say that." Noah smiled. "I just have that kind of face."

"Hmm..." The woman returned talking to her daughter who was coloring in a picture book. He had lied, as usual, not because he was ashamed but because he didn't desire any of the attention. The fact was, Noah Anthony was his father in every way, in manners, and in looks, from his smile to his build. The only difference was his hair which was a dark brown, and he was taller than his dad, though only slightly. Noah didn't desire any of the attention that his father had. Being Captain America was one thing, being his son was another, and Noah just really wanted that to remain his secret. The only people who knew Noah was Steven Rogers' son besides his family were his two buddies from the navy and SHIELD.

"You know, you look a lot like-"

"Hello, this is your captain speaking. We are now going to begin our final descent into New York City, so please make sure your seat belts are buckled and all electronics are turned off. We hope you've enjoyed your flight and that we'll see you again soon. Thank you."

_And thank you, Captain, whoever you are for saving me the struggle of coming up with yet another explanation. _

* * *

><p>It was a surprise, him coming home early. They all still thought he was in San Diego. So, he hoped he would find them all home. He came up to Avengers Tower with only a small bag, and the navy uniform he wore. He was about to step in when suddenly someone came rushing out, laughing and bumped right into him. He grabbed her shoulders to steady her.<p>

"Pardon me, ma'am-"

"Oh! I'm sorry-" She flipped her dark red curls over her shoulder. She had flashing green eyes with incredibly light freckles on the fair bridge of her nose, and a curved smile that indicated mischief. In that moment she looked up into his blue eyes and recognized him. "Noah... Noah...?!"

"Irina?!"

"Oh... Oh my god!" She pulled him into her embrace, wrapping her arms around him and squeezing him with all her might. "It's so good to see you!" She breathed. "What are you doing here? You're back early!"

"I came home early!" He grinned. Then he pressed his finger to his lips. "Shh! It's a surprise."

"Oh, Noah!" She grinned again, pulling him into her embrace. She sighed deeply, and he held her tightly. Even though she wasn't one of his family, it was good to see and hold someone familiar.

"Promise not to tell?"

"Not until you give me the word, Captain." She smiled. He laughed,

"I'm far from that."

"We'll see about that. You know what Essie says?"

"Hmm?"

"_He has the heart of a Captain." _He laughed.

"Essie always knows what we're all thinking, but I think she got that one wrong. I'm far from a leader."

"Go!" Irina grinned. "Go, see your family. Watch out for Jordan, he's probably chasing me." She gestured to the bow and the quiver that were strapped to her back.

"Alright, thanks for the tip, Irina!"

"Noah! Don't ever leave again!" She smiled and waved as he entered the tall building that he called home.

* * *

><p><em>Aspen Victoria Elaina Stark<em>

"Barton?" She gasped.

"Umm..." He grinned, "Who?" She grabbed his nice suit.

"Don't you dare play games with me, Alexei Clintovich!"

"I- I- I'm-"

"Get over here and sit down." She shoved him over towards a table father away from the flashing lights and music. He sat down slowly, and she let go of his suit. Alexei Clintovich was the son of Natasha Romanoff and Clint Barton. He was a handsome young man with light red hair and light green eyes, which contrasted his sister's dark red curls, and forest green eyes. Aspen was sure Alexei's hair would be curly two if he'd let it grow out. He kept it very short. He was very muscular from all the training he'd had and was an incredible SHIELD agent. "What the hell are you doing here?!"

"Umm-"

"And so help me, if you don't tell the truth I will kill you."

"Okay, look, Aspen. Mom and I are on a mission."

"Aunt Tasha's here too!?" Aspen gasped.

"Yes..." He sighed.

"Alright, so what are you doing at _my _party exactly? I can assure you that SHIELD isn't going to find any illegal happenings here..." She paused to smile, "At least...not technically."

"Great, I'll elect to ignore that comment. Aspen, we're investigating a man named Martin Pullman."

"Pullman?" Aspen snorted, "He's boring as hell, you won't find him doing anything illegal."

"Umm... we have information that tells us otherwise. We believe Pullman's a Russian spy who's working on stealing your new energy secrets." Alexei frowned.

"What?!" Aspen's mouth dropped open and then she laughed. "Pullman? Oh my god. He just became 1000 times more interesting."

"You're not in the least bit concerned about Pullman stealing your secrets?" Alexei frowned.

"Secrets? Oh you mean, the new energy for missiles." She laughed. "That's not real, it's a trap meant for spies. Now that you've found him you can have him. That's exactly what that 'project' is meant to do."

"What?"

"Isn't it brilliant? I came up with that and Dad finalized it! We're not working on missiles right now!" Aspen snorted, "We're working on clean energy, like dad's reactor."

"Oh..." Alexei frowned. "So... do you want to continue leading Pullman astray..?"

"No. Absolutely not. I want that bastard gone."

"We can take care of that for you."

"Oh thank god. He's the most boring financial advisor on the face of the planet."

"So where do I find him?" Alexei asked, ignoring Aspen's silly comments.

"He's somewhere around here. Hey, can I come with you when you find him?"

"No." Alexei glared, standing up. "This is strictly SHIELD business."

"Oh come on! My dad practically rebuilt SHIELD."

"Haha. Actually that was Director Phil Coulson." Alexei sighed, "See you around, Aspen."

"Excuse me, you can't just leave. This is my party, and I haven't seen you in two months, Yosha! You think you're just going to leave?!"

"I'm on duty, Aspen!" Alexei sighed. Aspen glared,

"Well, a nice goodbye would suffice."

"Alright, we'll see you back at the tower."

"Bye! If you need anymore help, let me know!"

"Yes, Miss Stark." Alexei rolled his eyes.

_"__Alexei, I found him." _

"Where are you?"

_"__In the car. Get out here. We have to get him to a secure facility before he wakes up."_

"Coming."

* * *

><p><em>Noah Anthony Rogers<em>

"Welcome home, Mr. Rogers."

"Thanks, JARVIS." Noah entered his family's apartment to find it absolutely still. It was full of stony silence and it made him sigh. His parents, Katie, Joshua, and James were no where to be found. He walked down the hall to his room, where he dropped his bag on his bed. He smiled up at all his posters. It was good to see Irina. The last time he'd seen her she had been beating everyone up with the crazy training her father had been giving her, especially him, but this time... He smiled and lay down on his bed, staring at the ceiling. Suddenly he heard the door open.

"Hey, Mom and Dad aren't here!"

"We get to do whatever we want!"

"YES!" He heard footsteps trample through the apartment towards the hall. Noah grinned, jumped off his bed and entered the hallway just as his younger twin brothers came sliding around the corner.

"AH! GHOST!" Josh screamed.

"Stay back! I know karate!" James held up his hands. Noah laughed out loud.

"Noah!?" Josh gasped, as Noah took off his navy issued hat.

"NOAH!" Both boys cried out together, and they raced down the hall towards their brother. They collapsed into his arms, almost knocking him over.

"James! Josh!"

"It's so great to see you, Noah!" Josh gasped.

"Yeah!" James nodded.

"Hey, boys, you wanna help me surprise Mom, Dad, and Katie?" The twins grinned.

"Yeah!" They said at the same time.


	4. Chapter 3 SURPRISE!

**Alrighty... Here is chapter three. Note to all of you: I do not speak Russian. So yeah... Just as I am not very fluent in French as proven in the first book... (still haven't fixed that. D:) And also, I'm not using the Russian alphabet because it's too complicated and I want people to be able to "hear" the characters talking. **

**Anyways! **

**Thanks for reading!**

**-randomblueboots**

* * *

><p>CHAPTER THREE<p>

_Eric Matthew Banner_

He sat in his room staring up at the ceiling and hoping that someone would come to see what was wrong. Someone would notice he hadn't gotten out of bed this morning. _Pull yourself together, Eric. You're twenty-two years old. There's no reason for you to be moping about in your bedroom. _He paused in his thoughts, sitting up and looking out of the window at the city. _Yeah, there is. There is great reason. I can't go out there again. Not after yesterday. _

No one knew, but Eric Matthew felt the anger pulsing through him. Gamma Radiation, passed down from father to son. Sometimes he hoped that it was just him being paranoid, that there wasn't anything wrong with him, but yesterday he saw it. Yesterday he saw the green. Yesterday he almost lost control. And it pained him to think that, just like his father, he'd have to learn to control it. None of his other siblings had said anything about green skin, or anger management issues (which he'd had his entire life). So perhaps the gamma radiation passing to him was just a one time thing. He was a scientist. It was his job to figure things out, but... he wished he didn't have to figure this one out. He wished he didn't have to think about it at all.

"Eric?" There was a soft knock on the door. _Elsa Jean. _His baby sister. Of course, she'd notice.

"Yeah?"

"It's like three in the afternoon. Are you okay?"

"No..."

"Can I come in?" Eric thought for a moment, and lay back down on his bed.

"Yeah." Elsa Jean opened the door softly and stepped in. She was wearing her lab coat, and her thick dark brown curls were pulled back away from her face like she'd just come from the lab. She stepped forward and he gestured for her to come and sit on the bed next to him. She did so, and smiled, her brown eyes filled with concern.

"Are you alright?" She asked. He shrugged. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing."

"Eric, that's absurd." She frowned, "Something is obviously wrong. You've been in bed all day. Mom just called and wondered where you were. Aunt Maria was expecting you to work almost six hours ago."

"I know..."

"So, what's wrong?" Elsa Jean was always so gentle, the way she spoke and gently patted his hand. It made him give in.

"Ellie... I think I have..."

"You think you have gamma radiation in you?" Elsa Jean frowned. "Why?"

"I'm so angry, Ellie... So angry, all the time."

"Just because you're angry doesn't mean you have gamma radiation in your veins. You need to-"

"No! It's not like that! I was turning yesterday. I was... I saw green...And I feel it! I can feel it! I'm different. And not a good different, like mom always says. Not _special."_

_"_Eric! Dad always used to say that about himself. Remember the stories?"

"Those were stories, Elsa Jean. This is real." Eric looked terrified.

"It was all real, Eric, you know it. You need to set aside the fear."

"IT'S NOT FEAR-!" Elsa Jean stood up suddenly, anger flaring in her. Her eyes flashed.

"IT IS FEAR! YOU ARE AFRAID OF HURTING PEOPLE, AND ERIC MATTHEW BANNER..." She froze, as if realizing she was in the middle of a hurricane, "...I...I...I know you will never do that."

"Thanks, Elsie." She leaned over and hugged him tightly.

"I love you, Eric, remember that."

"Of course, and I love you too." There was a soft knock and the door opened a little more to reveal Eric's mother.

"Eric, are you alright?"

"Yeah, I am. I just wasn't feeling very well this morning. I totally forgot to call Aunt Maria."

"Oh, honey, I'm sorry. How about I make you some tea?"

"That would be great, thanks, mom." Juliette hurried away. Elsa Jean looked over at her brother with a frown.

"You really ought to tell her."

"It's not important. Besides, I don't want to worry her." Eric shrugged.

"Eric..."

"I'm fine for now, Elsa Jean. If I have anymore problems I'll talk to Dad."

"Promise?"

"I swear."

* * *

><p><em>Finley Kristin Odinson<em>

"Finley, are you in here?" She heard her father's footsteps as he entered her room and she shut her eyes, holding on tightly to her knees and hoping he didn't know she was here, or feel she was here. She brushed a strand of long red hair out of her face and looked up at the glistening crystals all along the ceiling and walls of her closet. In the darkness they shone and shimmered gently, melting in the warm room. She choked on a sob, and her father heard it, as he always did.

"Finley? Why are you in here-?" He opened the doors and looked at the huge crystals of ice in awe. "By Odin..." He breathed.

"Dad..." She whispered, "What's wrong with me?"

* * *

><p><em>Aspen Victoria Elaina Stark<em>

Aspen watched Alexei move towards the doors of the casino, and then looked back towards the bar and all her employees and frowned._I don't take orders from anyone. _She stood, and followed what seemed like a far more interesting ending to her day. Alexei moved outside where Aunt Tasha was waiting in their black rental car. She grinned when she saw him.

"Get in, I think I've found a pretty secure warehouse where we can interrogate this asshole." Alexei opened the door, and as he did Aunt Tasha saw Aspen.

"Hey, Aspen! How are you?"

"Aunt Tasha. I'm alright."

"Aspen, I told you this is strictly SHIELD business." Alexei frowned.

"Do you want to come along?" Tasha asked.

"Do I?!" Aspen grinned. "I would love to."

"Go ahead and hop in the back. You'll have to sit by our little friend, but he's out so he shouldn't bother you."

"Mom! This is strictly against regulations!" Alexei gasped as Aspen yanked open the back door and sat down next to Martin Pullman. Tasha turned and looked over at her son with a grin,

"I'm an Avenger. I don't follow regulations."

"This is the best day ever! And tomorrow I'm going home. Perfect combination. Hey! If you guys want we can use Dad's basement as an interrogation room. It's pretty good. He'll have no idea where it is. Dad had all the windows blacked out because he kept some of his and his dad's old inventions in there and he didn't want anyone seeing them and getting ideas. That was ages ago. Now he just uses it as storage." Natasha smiled.

"Sounds like a good plan to me. What do you think, Alexei?"

"If we get to spend the night in Stark Mansion then I won't complain." Alexei nodded.

"Alright. Aspen, if you don't mind being the GPS we're game."

"No problem."

* * *

><p><em>Noah Anthony Rogers<em>

"Hey, boys. We're home." Noah heard his dad's voice call.

"Where were you?!" Something sounded like James and Joshua jumped off of the sofa.

"We just went shopping. Katie needed some new clothes and we figured it wouldn't be too bad of an idea to grab some groceries."

"Oh. Well, the mail came." There was a rustling as groceries were set down on the counter. Noah grinned.

"Yeah?"

"Where?" Katie's voice asked. "Did I get anything?"

"There's a giant package addressed to all of us." James said.

"Where?"

"In front of the TV." Joshua said. Noah heard footsteps approach the box.

"Well... That's odd. I haven't ordered anything, have you?" Steve asked.

"No..." Maria said. There was a jangling as Steve took out his keys and ripped the tape off the top.

"This isn't very well packaged." He frowned, as he opened the lid, and Noah leaped up.

"SURPRISE!" Maria and Katie screamed. Josh and James laughed and clapped their hands. Steve dropped his keys, and jaw.

"NOAH!?" Maria gasped. Steve gripped his son's shoulders.

"Noah!" He breathed, and then pulled him into his embrace.

"Noah's back! Noah's back!" The twins were dancing around the living room and jumping on furniture while their parents weren't paying attention.

"Look at you!" Maria jumped forward, gripping her son tightly. "My baby, all grown up."

"Mom, I've been grown up for-" Maria had tears streaming down her cheeks so he shut up and hugged her tightly. She pulled away after what seemed like hours and dove into her husband's embrace while Katie came to face her brother, who was still standing in his large box.

"Noah." She grinned. "It's really you!" She grabbed him and wrapped her arms around his neck, hugging him tightly. "My big brother!" She laughed and kissed his cheek. "I missed you so much!"

"I missed you too, Katie. I missed all of you very much."

"Are you hungry?" Maria asked, "I'm making dinner right now! I'm making grilled cheese sandwiches with ham."

"That sounds amazing." Noah nodded.

"Oh! Just wait until everyone else sees that you're home." Katie laughed.

"Well, I met Irina on my way in, but she's the only one that knows, I think." Noah replied. "Unless Josh and James blabbed."

"We didn't!" James gasped.

"We swear!" Josh nodded.

"We were in here helping you get the box ready." James grinned.

"That's true. You wouldn't have had time to tell anyone."

"Well, this is wonderful. We'll have to have a party." Maria smiled.

"Mom! You don't have to do that!" Noah gasped.

"Nonsense! You're home from sea. You deserve a party!"

* * *

><p><em>Alexei Andrew Romanoff-Barton<em>

"_Zdrastvootye,_ Mr. Pullman." Tasha hissed. Martin Pullman looked up from the chair he was tied to.

"You!" He glared. "Natalia Romanoff." She grinned when she heard him say her name. "The Widow."

"Indeed." She sighed. "That is me. So you, Mr. Pullman have the advantage. See, I don't know your name, but you know mine."

"I don't know his name." Mr. Pullman frowned, nodding towards Alexei, who stood above him.

"Well, your not in any position to know my name, Mr. Pullman." Alexei snarled.

"But I know that little bitch's name." Pullman nodded to Aspen. "Aspen Victoria Elaina Stark." He spat out Aspen's last name as though it were poison.

"Yes, Martin. That is indeed my name. What of it?"

"You know nothing, you naïve child! You're just like your father: egotistical, haughty, vain, and immature." Aspen sighed.

"I'd rather be that than a stuffy, boring, asshole." She said. Alexei was surprised at how she was able to remain so cool. Tony Stark would be fuming by now. _It's her mother's genes. _"And I think you mean eccentric, genius, beautiful, and wildly impatient." _And there's Tony Stark. _

"Enough. Mr. Pullman, you have some secrets that I'm sure your agencies would be so happy to receive." Natasha smiled.

"If I did I wouldn't tell you." Mr. Pullman snapped.

"What is your name?" Alexei asked. Pullman shut his mouth, and shook his head. "Kak vas zovut?!"

"Mr. Pullman, please, feel free to cooperate." Natasha snapped.

"Kak vas zovut?!" Alexei shouted again. _What is your name?!_

"You know tales about me, Mr. Pullman, and you know what I can do. It would be much more reasonable for you to answer the question."

"_Menja zovut_ Fyodor Peterovich Artemyev." _My name is Fyodor Peterovich Artemyev. _

"_Eto Horosho_, Mr. Artemyev. See? It's not hard to answer questions."

"_Spasiba, _Mr. Artemyev. Shall we move on?" Alexei asked.

"I don't see what there is to move on to." Artemyev spoke in Russian, "There is nothing I'd like to discuss with you, traitor." He spoke to his mother, and Alexei swung his hand. _SLAP! _

"You are in no position to speak to her that way." He hissed in the same language. "Spy."

"You think she's sin-free?" Artemyev snarled. "Natalia Romanoff is far from being as pure as you think she is."

"I have my sins, and they are mine to bear, Artemyev." Natasha said. "I have chosen my side, and you have chosen yours now, we clash. You're going to answer my questions, or you will suffer the consequences."

"Which are?"

"After I hurt you, (very, very badly), I'll had you over to US government. I'm sure they'll be thrilled to have caught a Russian Spy. I don't think what they do to spies is very pleasant." Tasha said.

"You think you can threaten me, Natalia?" Artemyev snapped. "I will not answer any of your foolish questions."

"_Cho vy hotite_?" Alexei asked. _What do you want?_

"Nothing." Artemyev replied.

"Answer the question." Natasha snapped.

"_Chto vam nujno_?" Alexei asked. _What do you need? _

"Nothing. I told you I won't be answering-"

"ANSWER THE QUESTION, NOW!" Natasha howled. Alexei saw Aspen jump out of the corner of his eye and he smirked. Served her right for interfering with SHIELD business.

"We- we were stealing military secrets from Stark Industries. I was hired by- by- no. I can't say."

"I'm sorry to hear that." Natasha smiled and then slammed her fist in Artemyev's face. Aspen jumped again, and Alexei winced.

"Alright! Alright! I was hired by a small agency. They call themselves Truth." Artemyev gasped out in Russian.

"Truth? That's the best you can come up with?" Alexei asked.

"That's what we need from you, Artemyev. Truth." Tasha said.

"I swear, it is true. I don't know what they want. All I know is they offered me enough rubles for me to live the rest of my life in luxury if I could steal the secrets of Stark's new energy missiles." Artemyev replied.

"Truth. Huh?" Tasha looked over at Aspen. "Apparently this man has been working for an organization called 'Truth'. He claims they offered to pay him a lot of money to get your missile secrets." Aspen laughed.

"I'm glad I have them fooled."

"Wait. Fooled? What does that mean?"

"Where did these Truth people meet you, Mr. Artemyev?" Alexei asked.

"I- We never met. A large sum of money was sent to my bank account after I was contacted over the internet. The rest was coming after I got them what they wanted. If they find out I've given them away they will kill me."

"Mr. Artemyev, that will be no problem." Alexei grinned.

"SHIELD will be taking care of you from now on."

"But-"

"_Spokoynoy nochi, _Mr. Artemyev." _Goodnight. _Natasha grinned. Alexei fired the taser.

"Well." Aspen breathed.

"SHIELD will be here to pick him up in the morning." Natasha shrugged and hurried up the stairs, out of the basement. Aspen stood to follow Alexei but he turned around to face her,

"Don't ever mix yourself up in SHIELD business again, Aspen. Your father may have done it, but that's because he was an asshole, and he was an Avenger."

"Excuse me?"

"Don't do it again." He said firmly, and hurried up the stairs. She followed after him, angrily, but he didn't care. Aspen Stark was meddling in business that wasn't her own.


	5. Chapter 4 It's your's

CHAPTER FOUR

_Maggie Frigga Odinson_

"You're what?!" She gasped.

"Going back to Asgard." Thor said.

"Why?!" Maddie cried.

"Your grandfather is quite old and he wishes that Loki and I return there to take his places as rulers over the realm."

"But, Dad!"

"You can't leave Midgard!" Maggie gasped. "All our friends are here. What about the Avengers?"

"Maggie..." Jane smiled sadly, "Look around you. There are no more Avengers. Your aunts and uncles are getting to retirement age. There's nothing left of what once was."

"But-!"

"Can I stay with you in Asgard, Dad?" Niel asked.

"My son..." Thor looked down at Niel with love. "You must take up my place as the bearer of mjolnir."

"But, I can't hold mjolnir! It won't let me lift it."

"The Avengers are gone, my son, and Earth needs a protector. You must become worthy, you must be able to lift mjolnir!" Thor said. Maggie could already see the pressure pushing down on Niel's shoulders, and she opened her mouth to warn her father, but it was too late.

"I CAN'T!" Niel shouted, "I'm not strong enough, like you are! I'm not worthy!" He dashed down the hallway to his room.

"He does not understand." Thor frowned.

"What doesn't he understand, Dad? To me it looks like you don't get it." Maddie said.

"I know that to be able to hold mjolnir takes time." Thor said.

"Yeah but..." Maggie knew what was wrong with Niel, all his life he had looked up to his father's strength and talked about one day being an Avenger himself. Thor encouraged these fantasies, telling him that one day he would hold mjolnir. One day, he would be the heir of Thor- the guardian of Earth, an Avenger. He trained hard, he grew strong. He didn't skip out on training sessions like some of the other kids in Avengers Tower. He stuck to it, so that he could pick up mjolnir. And at last, when he thought he was ready he reached for the hammer, and just like all the other men who tried to pull the sword from the stone he could not. Niel was stuck then, from that moment, with an image in his mind of him being all these other men. His father, Maggie knew, saw Niel as King Arthur.

_"__One day, my son, you shall hold mjolnir in your hands."_ He had said so often, even after that first time Niel couldn't lift the hammer. Each time Niel tried his hopes were dashed, and Thor's promises of him becoming the next Thor came down either as empty wishes or burdensome sacks of sand, because just like all those other lords and princes who tried to pull the sword up from it's hiding place, Niel would disappoint his father. His failure was too much for him to face. Maggie knew the rest of her family saw that, but Thor didn't and it hurt her to see that her father was so blind to Niel's pain.

"What will we do without you and mom, Dad?"

"You must follow your dreams, my daughter. But you shall all come to Asgard, my children and stay with us for some time before leaving for Midgard again."

"But Dad, what about the Avengers?"

"My dear, I suspect that there must be new Avengers soon. It is just a matter of them taking up the throne."

* * *

><p><em>Finley Kristin Odinson<em>

The thing that followed her in her dreams now haunted her in daylight. She could feel its chill floating gracefully after her. Air and water, so easy to form in her hand, colder, colder. It was like a second nature. She could feel the particles in the air, she could touch them, and send them spiraling, solidifying into shapes. Snowflakes, ice, and frost. It terrified her, honestly. She had no idea what she was doing. Trails of ice followed her hand on the windowsill, snowflakes fell on her while she was in the shower, and her milk froze before she could dunk the chocolate chip cookie.

_Dad, what's wrong with me?_ She had asked.

_Oh, Fen. Nothing is wrong with you. You're just learning. _

_I'm not learning anything! This is a curse. _

_It's nothing of the sort. This is a gift. I'm going to teach you how to use it. _Loki frowned.

A gift from the frost giants, passed on through blood. She shivered, staring down at her cold finger tips.

"Now. Make a snowflake."

"One snowflake?" She looked up at her father with a frown.

"Yes, on your fingertip. Whenever you're ready." She concentrated, feeling the air around her finger and cooling it down. There was suddenly what felt like a burst of energy and it was snowing all around them.

"Fen..." Loki sighed.

"I made it snow! Isn't that better than one single snowflake?!" Finley asked.

"The goal is to get you to learn how to control your powers, not how to use them. If you want one single snowflake you've got to be able to make one single snowflake. If you can't control this, then everything will be misery." Loki said. Finley sighed.

"You're right. This sucks."

"Once you learn it won't." Loki smiled, "Watch and see."

* * *

><p><em>Aspen Victoria Elaina Stark<em>

"Good Evening, New York." She smiled. She had left Seattle that afternoon, leaving Alexei and Aunt Tasha to clean up their mess with SHIELD. She would see them tomorrow when they returned to the tower. Now, at last she was home. She'd get to see her dad, and her sister, and all the rest of the friends and family that lived in Avengers Tower with her.

_Aspen? _Pepper's voice popped up in her head and Aspen felt the connection between the two of them fuse together.

_Essie? I've not even landed yet, how are you talking to me?_

_I'm at the airport. You feel happy. _

_I'm glad I'm home. _Aspen thought.

_I know! I'm glad you are too! Dad has a surprise for you. _

_I know. He told me when I talked to him yesterday. You'll never guess what I got to do._

_Try me. _Essie said. Aspen could feel she was laughing. So she opened her mind and remembered the evening before, showing Essie her memories and what happened with Pullman, Alexei, and Aunt Tasha.

_Wow. You got to watch Aunt Tash beat someone up. _

_Barely, but yeah. Also, Pullman was the most boring financial advisor ever. _

_I know. You think about it all the time. You really hate those meetings. _

_I do. _

_Well, from the looks of it they seem boring. _

_I'm glad you're helping yourself to my memories again. _

_You offered the last ones willingly. _

_Yes, but not the meetings. However, you can go ahead and take those. I don't care. _

_I told you, I can't erase memories yet. That's really complex and if I try I might melt your brain. _

_Right. Well, we could create a machine to harness the power-_

_You may think that's the answer, but those meetings help make you who you are. I'm not going to erase them. Besides, when you take away a memory you must replace it with something else. I cannot give people new memories yet. It's too hard._

_You could just replace them with memories of me sitting in the mansion and talking to you. _

_That would make no sense because I'm all the way over here and you're all the way in Seattle. There's no way I'd be able to communicate with you all the way from here. _

_I mean on the phone, silly. _

_Oh. Still, I told you, I can't do it._

_Alright, I'm just joking around. I know. What time did you get home?_

_This morning. Dad was there to greet me, but he pretty much hugged me and hurried back to the lab to get his project done. _

_What is his project? _Aspen frowned. Her father hadn't mentioned any project.

_It's his surprise for you. _

_Oh! He's building something for me? _

_I guess. So I sort of headed up to the family room and hung out with Helena and Katie. _

_How is Kate? _

_She's great. Oh! Noah's home!_

_WHAT?! _Noah wasn't supposed to be home for another month.

_Yeah! He came home early and surprised us all, especially Uncle Steve and Aunt Maria. You should have seen your Dad's face when he saw him though. "Noah Anthony! You're home!" _Dad always called Noah with his middle name as well, just to emphasize the fact that Uncle Steve had named his son after him. It was mostly just to annoy Uncle Steve, but it also had a little bit to do with his ego and how it made everyone laugh.

_Wow! I can't wait to see him. It's been forever! _

_I know! It was so great. But you'll never guess what. _

_What? _

_I have a secret._

_A secret? You don't usually tell me other people's secrets. _

_That's because its dangerous. It could cause problems. But this one's too good._

_What is it?_

_Irina likes him. _

_Huh?_

_Irina Yumiko Romanoff-Barton likes Noah Anthony Rogers. _

_How do you determine that? _Aspen frowned, trying to see it.

_I can read people's minds, Aspen, remember?_

_Yeah, but... weird. What about Noah? _

_I don't know. He tends to have mixed emotions on the subject of Irina Yumiko. _

_How so?_

_Well, he hates that she was always shooting him with arrows before he left, but he's kind of attracted to her. _

_Oh. That's hilarious. _

_Yeah, lets keep it our little secret and use it on them when we need something from them._

_Okay. Sounds like a plan. But what would we need from Noah or Irina?_

_Well, with Irina I can think of lots of things. For her to stop shooting us with her stupid arrows is one. _

_Oh yeah. That is a good one. _

_Anyways. You're pretty close now. _

_Yeah, we're on the ground. I'll see you in a few minutes. _

_Yeah! _

The silence that fell on Aspen's mind made her sigh, but she was glad she could still feel Essie. She missed Essie whenever she went out of state and they grew too far apart to communicate.

_I heard that! _Essie laughed.

_Yeah, yeah. Make fun of me._

_No, I miss you too! _

Aspen got off her plane and hurried down towards the baggage claim area to grab her suitcase before meeting Essie wherever she was.

_Where are you? _Essie asked.

_At the baggage claim. _Aspen replied. _Where are you? I'll meet you there. _

_I'm in the cab outside, waiting for you. I'll get out and have the driver open the trunk. _

_Okay. _Aspen saw her suitcase, grabbed it, and yanked it off of the belt and onto the floor. Then she turned towards the pick up area. Essie was the best sister in all the realms.

_Where are you? _Aspen asked.

"Over here! Aspen!" Aspen turned to see her sister, shoulder length blond hair and big blue eyes with a bright smile.

"Essie!"

"Aspen!" They raced towards each other, Aspen as fast as she could go with her stupid suitcase, and Essie much faster. They embraced, rocking back and forth in their hug, laughing and smiling.

"It's so good to see you!" Aspen gasped.

"And you too!" Essie grinned. She grabbed Aspen's suitcase and shoved it into the trunk of the cab, then they both climbed into the back.

"Stark Tower, please." Aspen said.

"Right away."

"So, why didn't dad come?" Aspen asked.

"He's finishing up that project for you. He wanted it done before you got home. I'm sure he'll be at the door to greet you." Essie said.

"Well, now I'm curious."

"You've always been curious. I can feel it."

"Yeah, I've got to remember who I'm talking to."

"You should. I know you better than you know yourself."

"That's almost creepy."

"Alright. I know your brain better than you do."

"Still disturbing."

"Sorry."

"Eh. I'm used to it."

"So, you'll find this interesting." Essie grinned. "Apparently Uncle Thor and Uncle Loki have this huge announcement to make tonight."

"Yeah? That's a little weird. I wonder what it's about."

"I don't know."

"Maybe they should postpone it for when Alexei and Aunt Tasha get home."

"Yeah. When are they coming home?"

"They should be home tomorrow." Aspen replied.

"Well, I'll talk to Uncle Thor and see if he wants to wait until tomorrow evening."

"Essie. Do you know what they're going to say?" Aspen asked.

"Of course I do. I can't tell you though. They want everyone to find out from them."

"Oh. Okay." They arrived at the tower a little while later. Pepper payed the taxi driver and Aspen pulled her suitcase out from the trunk. The moment she did she was greeted by her father's voice.

"Aspen?"

"Dad!" She grinned when she saw him and fell into his warm embrace.

"It's good to see you, honey." He kissed the top of her head.

"It's good to see you too, Dad."

"Come here! You have to see what I made you! You're going to love it."

"Okay."

"I'll take your stuff to your room, Aspen." Essie offered.

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah. I'll meet you both back in the lab." Essie nodded.

"Okay." Aspen followed her father into the elevator.

"It's so good to see you, Aspen. You have no idea." He grinned.

"Welcome back, Miss Stark."

"Thanks, JARVIS."

"My lab." Tony commanded.

"Of course, sir."

"So, what's the surprise you've got for me, dad?" Aspen asked.

"You'll just have to wait and see." Tony winked.

"Dad!" The elevator suddenly opened and Irina dashed in. She jabbed at the 'Shut Doors' button a few times.

"Come on! Come on!" But it was too late. Just as the doors were shutting someone stuck their arm in, and they opened up again. Irina jumped behind Aspen to hide.

"I'm getting sick and tired of your arrows, Irina!" Niel stood there, glaring. His blue eyes were as wild as a storm. His dark hair was swept back away from his eyes. Aspen stared at him. He was becoming more and more like his father every day. He could almost be a model.

"Umm..." Irina grinned. "What arrows?"

"You think I'm an idiot?" Niel growled. The elevator stopped slowly and the doors opened. Irina took the chance, dodged underneath Niel's arm and out the doors.

"Yes!" She laughed over her shoulder. He growled and ran out to chase her.

"Really?!" The person who stood outside the door shouted after them. Maggie and Maddie entered the elevator. The two girls were very beautiful, quite like their mother. They both had long dark brown hair. Their faces were the same shape and their lips were almost exactly the same except Maddie's lips were slightly thicker. The only other difference in their appearances besides this were their eyes. Maddie had blue eyes, as shocking as Thor's, and Maggie had brown eyes, like her mother.

"Aspen!" Maggie gasped.

"Penni!" Maddie cried.

"Oh my god! It's so good to see you! How long has it been? Three weeks?" Aspen said.

"It feels like so much more than that." Maggie grinned. The two girls hugged Aspen tightly.

"Where are you headed?" Tony asked.

"The family room." Maddie said. The elevator started moving. "Are you showing Aspen your surprise for her?"

"Yes." Tony nodded with a slight smile.

"Ooh. You'll have to tell me all about it tonight." Maggie laughed.

"Tonight?" Aspen asked.

"Yeah. You think you're going to just come home and not have a 'sleep-over' with us tonight?" Maddie asked.

"We're all almost twenty-eight, but who the hell cares. We're going to have some fun tonight, my friend. Maybe we'll paint each other's toenails." Maggie smiled.

"Well, as long as I'm with you two and we can talk that sounds like fun to me!" Aspen smiled. The elevator stopped at the family room and Maddie and Maggie hugged her again.

"So glad to have you back, Pen!" Maddie sighed, and the door shut before them. The elevator whizzed off once again towards the lab. At last they reached it, and Tony entered, Aspen following close behind. This was the place where she learned how to be a scientist, an engineer. This was where her father taught her many things and so many memories were established in her mind and heart.

"Alright. Are you ready for the great reveal?" Tony had some sort of dark blue plastic casing covering over what he was hiding in the middle of the room. Whatever it was it was tall, and long. It sat up on its short side, pushing up high into the air, though not much taller than Tony.

"Yes." Aspen nodded eagerly. Tony grabbed his little control panel pad and pressed a button, typing in a quick password. The hard plastic lid over whatever he was hiding came loose from it's clamps on the floor and large robotic arms came out from the ceiling to grab it. They slowly pulled the lid off of what Tony was hiding. Aspen let her hands go to her mouth as she watched in awe. What was underneath the lid was amazing and beautiful.

It was an iron suit, just like Tony's, painted red and gold, except obviously fit for a woman. She stared at it. It was beautifully finished and Aspen couldn't believe that it was there. Her dad had made her an Ironman suit... or Ironwoman, to be more precise.

"Oh. My. God. Dad! This is amazing!" Aspen hurried up to the location of the suit in the center of the room, but she didn't dare touch it. It was too beautiful. "Dad...?" She looked over at her father in awe.

"It's your's." He grinned, swiping gray hair back away from his eyes.

"No..." Aspen reached out and placed her hand on the armor's shoulder. Then she looked to where the arc reactor should be. She gently touched the circle at the armor's chest. "I don't have an arc reactor."

"Doesn't matter. It has it's own arc reactor. Then, if you really want we can make you a special suit to wear with an arc reactor in it while you're flying it."

"Wow, dad... I don't know what to say. This is... this is amazing!" She ran over and hugged him tightly.

"Do you want to see what it can do?" Tony asked.

"Yes!" Aspen gasped.

"Alright." Tony pressed a few buttons on his little pad. "Go ahead and stand in front of it facing me and we'll see how well it works." The light at the armor's chest lit up- a glowing blue. Aspen grinned. In her dreams she had been flying, perhaps today would be the day those dreams came true. "Jarvis, deploy IronMaid Mark One."

"Of course, sir." Aspen grinned at her father as she heard the movement of metal and the suit wrapped around her. She watched as the red and gold climbed up her arm and legs, and the helmet's face plate popped down over her eyes. For a moment everything was dark and then she could see her father, and also blue words flashed before her eyes: Booting in Process...

"Alright, Penni..." Her dad's voice sounded close to her ear, but she figured it was just the speakers. "How about you try moving around?" Aspen moved her arm up and down and found that the suit moved with ease along with her. She couldn't stop smiling. She took a step forward, and then turned to look around the room.

"Dad, this is awesome!" She said. "Can it fly?"

"Can it fly? Don't be silly. Of course it can!" Tony nodded.

"Can I give it a go?" Aspen asked.

"Well, how about we start with a few smaller things?" Tony typed in a few things and set the pad down. "How about you see if the face plate will open up and down for you?" Aspen looked around at the screen in front of her. Face plate? How did you tell this armor to do anything? Face plate.

"Miss Stark, to control the armor's functions there is a small diagram on the lower left corner of the screen. Aspen looked over at the lower left corner at a diagram of the suit. The moment her eyes looked over at it it grew larger and she looked up at the face mask. Instantly the diagram vanished and the face plate popped up. Tony grinned.

"So... how do you close it now?"

"Look over to your left." Tony said. Aspen looked over to see a piece of the screen and frowned. The diagram was just of the helmet. She stared at it for a few seconds and the face mask popped down again.

"So this is how you controlled your suit?" She asked.

"Ehh...Sort of..." Tony frowned. "Probably a little less technologically advanced back then."

"Wasn't too long ago."

"No, it was pretty long ago." Tony chuckled. "Alright."

"So, do I do the same thing with the thrusters?" Aspen asked.

"Yes- Well... You can just command the speed with your voice. As for the weaponry..."

"Weapons?" Aspen looked over at the diagram.

"Of course, Miss Stark, you're missiles are not stocked, but your thrusters are quite capable of shooting an energy beam of immense proportion-"

"No! Aspen!-" BANG!

Aspen stumbled backwards from the recoil of her arm.

"WOW!" She gasped, staring at the hole the shot made in the wall.

"Great." Tony walked over to the hole and looked down at the streets of New York. "I'm going to have to pay for that, you know."

"Sorry." Then she remembered the flying thing. "Lets see if we can't hover."

"Wait! Aspen!" Her dad spun around, but she was already hovering above the ground. Tony sighed. "Aspen... you really ought to just be paTIENT!" Aspen shot out of the hole in the wall and hovered above the city streets.

"Dad! This is incredible!" She shot up towards the top of the tower, watching the hole in the wall disappear, Tony shouting up at her, but also directly into her ear.

"You better get back down here, young lady! That suit has never been tested, it could be unstable!"

"Dad! It's fine! This is so-!" Suddenly the gentle whirring of the suit stuttered and completely ceased, and she was no longer flying in circles around the tower, she was falling. "DAD!" She cried, the word turning into a scream as she fell.

"ASPEN!"

"Attempting a reboot of the systems." Jarvis' voice said. Aspen fell past the hole, plummeting towards the ground fast. She knew the armor would protect her a little, but how much she wasn't sure.

"ASPEN!" Something hit her hard and she was floating again. Her father, in his own armor, had his arms wrapped around her waist, and was hovering only a few stories about the street. "Goddammit! I told you to wait!" Aspen was still trying to calm her nerves.

"Th-thanks." She breathed. Tony flew her back up to the hole and set her down on the ground gently.

"There must be something wrong with the connection between the energy source and the thrusters." Tony mumbled. Aspen stood there, still panting. Her and her father's suits both came off of them and returned to their original places: Aspen's in the middle of the room, and Tony's at the back wall. The moment Aspen's suit was gone she fell to her knees, staring down at her hands in awe.

"Are you okay?" Tony asked, half distracted. When she didn't answer he turned around and knelt next to her. "Aspen, baby, are you okay?" She looked up at him and then grabbed him, hugging him tightly.

"That was awesome!" She gasped. "Amazing! I was flying."

"Yeah." Tony frowned, "And you almost died."

"But you'll fix it, right? Can I help?"

"Yeah, I'll fix it, don't worry."

"Thanks, daddy, you're the best." He kissed her forehead. Then he helped her onto her feet. "Do you want me to help?"

"No, no. I want this to be my gift to you. You go see everyone else. I'm sure they'll be happy to see you again."

"Alright." She moved to leave and then turned around with a grin. "That was awesome dad, all ten seconds of it. This is the best present ever."

"I'm glad you like it, sweetheart."

* * *

><p><strong>Totally made up all the stuff with the armor, but... whatever. :P<strong>

**Thanks for reading, whoever is reading this! :D **

**-randomblueboots**


	6. Chapter 5 To Asgard!

CHAPTER FIVE

_Alexei Andrew Romanoff-Barton_

They flew into New York around three in the afternoon, the day after they handed Artemyev over to SHIELD for more intensive questioning. Tasha was calm as ever, but Alexei was excited. It would be good to see his friends and family once again. He hadn't been gone very long, but he still missed them all, especially Irina. They were expecting to take a taxi back to the tower, but were greeted with quite a surprise at the baggage claim.

"Yosha!"  
>"Irina?" Irina, her bright smile and dark green eyes filled with happiness came rushing into his arms.<br>"Alyosha! It's so good to see you! I'm so glad you're back! You'll never guess what I can do now. I've been practicing with my targets and..." Irina continued babbling in Russian while Alexei watched his parents greet one another. Tasha looked pleasantly surprised as she pulled her husband into her arms and kissed him gently. Alexei smiled. "Oh! Alexei! Aspen is back!" Irina gasped.  
>"I know!" Alexei nodded, "I met up with her in Seattle."<br>"You did?!" Irina gasped. "She didn't say anything about that."  
>"It was a rather delicate situation. Oh! I got pictures for you."<p>

"Alexei! Irina! Lets go." Tasha called.  
>"Coming." Irina walked after her mother and father, Alexei following closely behind, pulling some pictures he had printed out from his bag.<br>"Here." He handed his sister the prints. Seattle's finest. The Space Needle. Mount Rainier. The Ferry dock. Irina grinned.  
>"Thank you! These will be beautiful on my wall." She flipped through them eagerly.<br>"There's more too, if you want to flip through these on your computer you can print out whatever you want." Alexei handed his sister the SD card to his camera. She took it eagerly.  
>"Thanks, Yosh. You're the best."<p>

"Yosh?" Alexei frowned. He looked up when Irina didn't reply to see his parents whispering. The worry in Clint's eyes and a touch of sadness in Tasha's told Alexei something was wrong. He sped up his walk so he was just behind his parents to hear more of their conversation. However, there was a disadvantage.  
>"Alexei, your mother and I are trying to have a conversation." Clint frowned. His parents were also super spies and they caught onto him quicker than he caught onto them.<br>"But-"  
>"Don't worry." Tasha sighed. "You'll find out when we get home."<p>

* * *

><p><em>Maggie Frigga Odinson<em>

"Well... here it goes."  
>"You mean, you know too?" Aspen asked.<br>"Yes. Unfortunately. It's killing Niel."  
>"Umm..."<p>

"MY FRIENDS!" Thor cried. "Indeed, many of you know exactly what Loki and I must say to you, but surely none of the children... besides dear Pepper and my own young ones... know what I am about to say to you." Maggie looked over to see Pepper smile. Her powers still amazed everyone, and they kind of creeped Maggie out. To think that the young girl could hear everyone's thoughts.

"So, what is it?" Alexei asked, arms crossed, leaning against the back wall- stoic as ever.

"Thor and I are returning to Asgard to co-rule in our father's stead."

"Co-rule?" Aspen grinned, "Why didn't you think of that compromise ages ago?"

"It is a compromise that Thor came up with soon after our little ones were born." Loki said.

"We did not wish for conflict to cause rifts amid our families." Thor said. "We desired that we remain as good brothers until Ragnarok."

"So Thor spoke to Odin and it was decided that we would co-rule over Asgard together." Loki said.

"And what about Maddie and Maggie?" Aspen asked.

"What about Niel?" Noah frowned.

"What about Finley?" Kate asked.

"And Jordan?"

"And Helena?"

"We'll be going with mum and dad." Maddie sighed, "But, not for long. We will come back."

"We will follow our dreams here, and when we are ready we will return to Asgard forever."

"Forever?" Aspen looked horrified, "But Uncle Thor and Uncle Loki! You can't... you can't leave forever." She looked over at her father and Maggie's heart ached to see her best friend so pained.

"It is our duty to serve Asgard."

"But you're avengers... you must serve here too!" Josh glared.

"There's no avengers." Maggie sighed. "Not anymore."

"Enough of this silly mortal sadness." Loki frowned. "We have an invitation for all of you children. We would like you to come and reside in Asgard for one week for our crowning celebrations."

"Indeed! You shall all stay as our honored guests in Asgard!" Thor cried.

"We shall all have a magnificent time there!" Maggie grinned, throwing her arm over Aspen's shoulder. Asgard? They would be going to Asgard! Aspen's mouth had dropped open. Everyone else looked equally shocked.

"We get to go to Asgard?!" Josh gasped.

"Yes!" Niel nodded. "For a whole week!"

"No way!"

"Think of it as a sort of field trip." Tasha smiled, her arms crossed.

"This is the best week ever, I bet the Asgardians could give me some pointers on hand-to-hand combat." Kate grinned, raising her fists.

"Lady Sif, I'm sure, would be very pleased to meet you, young Kathryn." Thor said, "She can teach you many things."

"Wow." Noah looked over at his mother and father. "Are you coming as well?"

"Oh no." Maria shook her head.

"Your mother and I haven't been alone in twenty years." Steve grinned.

"Ew. Dad." Kate frowned. Maggie laughed.

"Besides, we've seen Asgard." Tony frowned. "It's shiny and all, but there's nothing extremely fascinating there that would keep me coming back to it. You kids are going on a fun field trip. We're staying here."

"Dad?" Eric looked over at his father. Bruce shook his head, swiping white hair away from his eyes.

"You all go and have fun. We'll be fine right here, like we've always been."

"What about Danny?" Elsa Jean asked. Everyone looked over at Juliette and Bruce. Maggie sighed. Daniel Bruce, the Banners' middle child. He was troubled. Though he trained with SHIELD, following his mother's footsteps, he had vanished off the face of the earth in a fit of anger one day. SHIELD hadn't even been able to track him. Though, they figured he was somewhere in Asia. Bruce and Juliette hadn't stopped looking for their son for one second, but Danny was no where to be found. _Poor Aunt Jules and Uncle Bruce. They must be so broken hearted_. Danny had been such a cute kid. Now, who knew where he was? He had grown angry at them and had slowly separated himself from them over the last few years. Now he was gone. _How they must beat themselves up over that._

"Danny will be missing out." Bruce sighed.

"When do we leave?" Alexei asked.

"Tomorrow afternoon." Helena smiled. Helena was a mini version of her sister and mother. Where Jordan took after his father with black hair and green eyes. (He looked like a younger version of Loki), Helena and Finley both had their mother's red hair and light blue eyes. It was already determined that Loki's three children had magic about them, but no one was sure what yet.

"Alright!" Aspen gasped. "I'm so ready to see another one of the nine realms!"

* * *

><p><em>Eric Matthew Banner<em>

"Hey, Dad." Eric stood above his father, who was examining something underneath a microscope in the lab. His father, though retired, never gave up on science. It was his passion. It was Eric's too. Studying to be a doctor was taking out a pretty big chunk of his life, but it excited him to think that soon he could work like his dad once did, to help people.

"What's up?" Bruce spun around in his chair to face his son.

"Umm... can I talk to you for a minute?"

"Oh. This sounds important." Bruce stood, walked across the tile to the exit from the lab, pulling off his white coat. "How about we-"  
>"Can we just talk here? No one else will be here and it's kind of... private."<p>

"Alright." Bruce returned to his seat at his desk, but yanked off his blue gloves, throwing them in the trash. He sat down, and then leaned forward towards his son, his brown eyes searching for answers in Eric's expression. "What's wrong, Eric?"

"I... I promised Elsie I'd tell you if I started getting nervous about it."  
>"About what?"<p>

"I think... I think I might..." How could he express what he needed to? How did you say it? Have the ability to 'hulk out'? No. It sounded so... "Have gamma radiation in me, like you." Bruce frowned.

"Of course. It's most likely, you are my son. You're the product of your mother and I. There's no doubt in my mind that gamma radiation was transferred through that process."

"That's not what I mean. I think it's reasonable to assume that there's gamma radiation in every single on of us 'Products of mom and you'."

"Yeah, that was a little harsh wording, wasn't it?" Bruce sighed.

"What I'm saying is, I think it's working on me the same way it does on you. The same way."

"Eric-"

"Dad, I'm not imagining things!" Eric gasped. "I didn't go to work yesterday because... because I saw the green, dad. I felt... him trying to escape. I... I wasn't myself. I barely got him under control. It's a Hulk. Just like yours." Bruce Banner put his head in his hands. He had worked so hard, all his life to prevent this. He had hoped and prayed that his children would not have the same curse as he did, and now... now it was to no avail. Eric inherited the curse, just as Aspen had inherited Tony's genius, Noah had inherited Steve's mannerisms, and Finley had inherited magic. Eric had inherited the one thing that made the public hate and love Bruce the most: the Hulk. It was curse that no one deserved.

"I'm...Dad... I'm sorry. This was stupid. I didn't mean to worry you." Eric jumped up and started for the door, but Bruce grabbed his shoulder.

"Eric Matthew." The young man turned to face his father. "Almost twenty-two years ago I got a call from my own apartment telling me that your mother had gone into labor. That was July thirteenth. I ran to the hospital, I didn't even take the time to find my keys, or ask for a lift, or grab a taxi. I ran to the hospital, crashed through those doors, and I was there when my son was born. I held your mother's hand, and the morning of July fourteenth the doctor handed her a tiny baby boy. I had never seen anything more beautiful in my whole life." Bruce's eyes were glimmering with tears as he gripped his son's shoulder tighter. "I was instantly in love with him, so small and perfect. I had always hoped that one day I could be a father. After I was hit by gamma radiation I didn't think that dream would ever come true. You made that dream come true. When you were born you were like a perfect miracle. I want you to know, right now, that you can tell me anything, and no matter what it is I will always, always love you." Bruce smiled. "Now about this green thing? It's no big deal, I'll teach you everything you need to know."

"You will?"

"Of course. Once you get the hang of it the Hulk won't be any problem."

"But Dad, you can't be the Hulk anymore."

"No, you're right, but it doesn't matter. I don't need to demonstrate, you'll learn just fine by me explaining things, right?"

"Of course." Eric nodded.

"Then as soon as you get back from Asgard, we'll work on it together."

"You're the best, dad."

"Far from it, but I strive to be." Eric pulled his father into a hug. "Try and get some good sleep tonight, Eric. Bifrost has the tendency of taking any desire to sleep and ripping it right out of you."

"Alright. Thanks for the tip."

"Good night."

* * *

><p><em>Finley Kristin Odinson<em>

"Fen, when we're in Asgard are you going to talk to other magic-users."

"Dad said we would. He said they could teach me important things about Frost-Giant magic."

"Well, that should be good, shouldn't it?" Helena asked.

"Yeah."

"What about trickery? Can people in Asgard teach me about practical jokes?" Jordan wondered.

"Have you forgotten the last time you did one of your so called 'practical jokes' you ended up in jail?" Finley asked.

"And the time before that." Helena said.

"And also, the time before that." Josh spoke up from where he and James were wrestling on the floor on the other side of the room.

"Your trickery is going to get you in too much trouble, baby brother." Finley snapped.

"And your ice isn't?" Jordan glared.

"Once dad helps me master my powers they won't be a problem. Controlling them will be not a big deal at all. I just need to practice."

"Right..."

"Josh? James?" Maria stood in the doorway of the family room.

"Yeah?" Josh looked up but James shoved him down to the floor again in their wrestling match.

"It's time to get ready for bed. Come on. Lets go back up to the apartment."

"Just a sec." James frowned.

"Don't you dare say just a sec to me, young-"

"OW! That's it! I'm gonna get you for that, James!"

"James Peter and Joshua Howard! On your feet this instant." There was a tone in Aunt Maria's voice that sent a chill through the room. Josh and James were on their feet in seconds. They knew their mother was a secret spy and that she was capable of some crazy things. Though they guessed she probably wouldn't use said crazy things on her own children they figured that it was better safe than sorry. "If you're going to go to Asgard tomorrow then you're going to get a good rest tonight."

"Yes, Ma'am." The boys nodded. Maria turned and looked at Loki's three children on the other side of the room.

"I suggest you do the same."

"We were just going to."

"Good. Tomorrow's a big day."

* * *

><p><em>Noah Anthony Rogers<em>

"Noah..." A soft voice whispered.

"Noah..." Noah moaned and rolled over.

"Noah! Wake up!"

"Oooooohhh..." Ghostly whispers came from his brothers as they stood over his bed.

"Noahhhhh, we have to paaaaack!"

"Noaaahhh..." Noah sighed, and pulled his blankets over his head.

"It's not working." James' voice said.

"So what now?" Josh asked. There was a moment of silence. _Uh oh.._.Noah thought, and then something wet ran up his shoulder. He shot up into sitting position and looked over at James.

"Did you just lick me?!"

"Ummm..."

"You're so dead."

"Ah!" James and Josh ran from the room, and Noah jumped out of bed, chasing his little brothers through the apartment.

"Get back here!"

"Nope!" The two boys ran for the hallway to the elevator.

"I'm going to catch you and then you'll be in trouble."

"Look what you've just gotten us into." Josh cried.

"Hey! You're the one who wondered what we should do next."

"What's going on?" Maria stood in the doorway of her and Steve's room, her arm's crossed. She was wearing one of Steve's shirts over top of leggings. Her hair was pulled back into a messy pony tail.

"We got Noah up mom!" The boys cried, running back through the house, jumping over the couches, and dashing towards the hallway again.

"Hey! No jumping on the furniture." Steve shouted from the kitchen. Noah leaped over the furniture in one bound and followed his brothers back into the hallway where they seemingly disappeared. Noah sighed and then shook his head grinning, moving away from his hiding brothers.

"Now where did they go?" He wondered aloud. Kate was grinning at the end of the hall way when he turned around. She was wearing tight black pants with a white tank top and she held a shield on one arm, quite similar to her fathers, but not painted.

"They should be leaving you alone now, huh?"

"Where'd you get that fancy thing?" Noah asked, wiping James-slobber off his arm with the bottom of his own tank top.

"It's not real vibranium." She said with a shrug. "It's just boring metals, so it's heavier than dad's shield but it works."

"I see."

"But I've been practicing with it, just like you did with dad's shield before you left."

"How good have you gotten?" Noah asked.

"You want to come see? I just got done with a training session with Helena and Irina, but I could train with you if you want."

"You guys need to pack for Asgard." Steve came out of the kitchen sipping on some coffee.

"Oh yeah." Noah nodded. Katie pulled her blond curls back into a pony tail at the back of her head.

"That's right. I've got to take a shower too."

"When do we leave?" Noah asked.

"Uncle Thor just texted..." Maria frowned, trying to decipher the text as usual. "He says to meet him up on the landing pad at around one... I think."

"Let me see." Steve took the phone from Maria's hands. "Yeah, that looks about right."

"Alright. I'll get to packing then." Noah nodded. As he walked down the hall towards his bedroom he heard the twins in the closet.

"Do you think he's gone?"

"Shut up."

"But-"

"He's Captain America's son, do you really think he would give up so easily?" Noah chuckled to himself and shook his head. James and Josh, the troublesome monkeys.

"Don't worry." He said aloud with a grin, "The next time one of you licks me I'll just lick you back." Silence was his response.

* * *

><p><em>Aspen Victoria Elaina Stark<em>

"I can't believe we're going to Asgard!" Aspen gasped, grabbing her bag. Her father had warned her and her sister to pack lightly because they were sure to receive Asgardian garb as gifts when they arrived.

"You wore Asgardian garb, dad?" Aspen had asked.

"Oh no." Tony said. "I'm not interested in looking like I'm wearing my mother's drapes. No. No."

_This is going to be the best vacation ever._ Pepper said in Aspen's head.

_I'll say. It's going to be fabulous._

They entered the elevator, followed by Tony. They sped up to the landing pad, and when they got there they found the Rogers family and the Romanoff-Barton family already there. As they came towards the group Noah said good morning to Irina and she looked up with a happy smile.

_Maybe it'll be romantic too._ Essie said with a smile.

_Are you thinking that perhaps they'll proclaim their love to one another in the starry realm of Asgard?_ Aspen grinned.

_Perhaps._

_How much does Irina like him for you to think that?_

_I'm just joking. It's just a silly crush. But it's still hilarious to think that it could actually happen._

_Yeah..._ Aspen looked over at Noah and Irina again. Noah was telling her a story that was obviously hilarious.

_My name is Noah Rogers and this morning I woke up and my hair was a mess, but I still was beautifully perfect._ Essie said.

_Doesn't that basically sum up Uncle Steve and Noah?_ Aspen asked.

_Wait for it..._ Essie frowned.

_And me?_

_There it is. Regular old Stark egocentricity._

_You sound like Uncle Steve._

"What are you two talking about?" Aspen jumped.

"Finley!" She gasped.

"Sorry, to scare you." Finley smiled, her bright blue eyes filled with excitement.

"How'd you know we were talking?" Pepper asked.

"Oh, the usual. Your facial expressions are changing without reason. You're staring off into space..."

"Oh. I didn't realize it was that obvious."

"So what were you talking about?" Helena popped up beside her sister.

"Oh... nothing..." Aspen looked back over her shoulder at Noah and Irina.

"Okay..."

"Is everyone here?" Thor cried as he came out as well into the windy day.

"I think so." Bruce joined him, followed by their children.

"I can't believe we're actually going to Asgard!" Elsa Jean gasped, her arm around Helena's shoulder. The two were the same age and best friends, almost like Maddie, Maggie, and Aspen.

"Well. Is everyone ready?" Loki asked. He stood with his brother and their families in the center of the landing pad.

"Yes." Aspen nodded. She looked over to her dad, Pepper did the same.

"I love you, Dad." They both said at the same time.

"I love you too." He pulled them both into a huge hug. As everyone else said goodbye to their parents Aspen held onto her dad tightly and whispered,

"Try and get some sleep."

"Relax. I'll be fine. You two have fun."

"We will, but promise, Dad, that you will sleep."

"I will. I promise." Tony nodded.

The two girls joined the rest of the Avengers' children standing around Thor and Loki.

"Have fun!" Clint shouted. "Shoot some Asgardians for me, Irina."

"Don't shoot the Asgardians." Tasha glared at her husband.

"We'll see you all in a week!" Steve cried as Thor raised his hammer to summon a portal. Little did they know that the would not be seeing their parents again for a very long time.


	7. Chapter 6 Gone

**So, everyone, I didn't do anything really on Asgard, mostly because none of it was really important and I just wanted to get back to Midgard where all the important stuff was happening. **

**Anyways. Here it is. The chapter after this, I think is really interesting because it shows you how they all deal with their pain. But we'll get to that. **

**Thanks for reading!**

**-randomblueboots**

* * *

><p>CHAPTER SIX<p>

_Noah Anthony Rogers_

The Week had flown so quickly past them. Exploring Asgard was the best thing that had ever happened to them. Kate got to train with Lady Sif. Irina got some pointers on her archery, though she claimed her dad was way better than some of the Asgardian Archers. Thor reminded her that Asgardians weren't well known for their archery, but rather their other skills. Besides learning things everyone had an incredibly fun time. There were feasts every night and the celebration of Loki and Thor's crowning as Kings over Asgard never ceased. But he was homesick. Even after only a few days he couldn't wait to return home to his parents. He had been gone so long before that now he only wished to be home.

At last the day arrived. They met at the end of the strange road that reminded Josh and James of the rainbow road on Mariokart. They would not cease calling it that and it made Thor shake his head and Loki sigh.

"Welcome back, Midgardians." Heimdall said.

"What is wrong?" Thor demanded, coming up behind Noah to face Heimdall. Noah hadn't noticed anything wrong, but apparently Thor could read Heimdall pretty well.

"It is Midgard. I see that there is trouble."

"Then I shall return to Midgard with them." Thor said.

"No, Thor!" Loki grabbed his brother's arm. "We must stay here. We are kings now. We can only leave Asgard if an entire world is in danger."

"What sort of trouble is it?" Thor asked.

"I cannot tell." Heimdall said.

"Then we must stay here. Children." Thor looked over to Aspen, Pepper, Noah, Kate, Josh, James, Eric, Elsa Jean, Irina, and Alexei. "If there is trouble and you need our help, you must call us." Thor said.

"We will." Worry was building up in Aspen's heart as she saw Uncle Loki and Uncle Thor's concerned expressions.

"Are you ready?" Loki asked.

"Yes." Noah nodded.

"See you later, Everyone!" Maddie and Maggie said at the same time.

"Bye!" Elsa Jean cried.

* * *

><p><em>Aspen Victoria Elaina Stark<em>

Another sickening whirling flash of colors took them home. Spinning spiraling. Soon they would land on the tower, perhaps the roof. Or maybe just outside the tower. Somewhere near the tower. Excitement pulsed through Aspen. Maybe Dad was done with her armor. Then she could really fly it! She felt they had touched on solid ground, and then the light slowly vanished and Aspen was faced with...

Red. There was red everywhere. Red flashing in the sirens: police and fire departments. The bright paint of the firetrucks was red. The roaring flames- those were red too.

_Where... where are we? _Pepper gasped. Her thoughts were so jumbled and confused that everyone heard it.

"It's..." Noah pointed to the huge **A **which had fallen to the pavement. "Home." The shocked faces of her companions were not enough to describe the elevated horror that Aspen felt as she looked up at her home, burned through. Chunks of metal framing collapsing in the heat. No. It was impossible. SHIELD cars and agents blocked her way to see the bottom of the tower, but she could see the streams of water as fire fighters worked to put the flames out. Then she remembered.

"DAD!" She rushed towards the police line. "DAD! NO!" She felt tears stinging at the back of her eyes. A couple SHIELD agents grabbed her. "NO! You don't understand! My father! Let go of me!" She ripped herself free, and tried to run again.

"Aspen! ASPEN!" Noah grabbed her arm.

"NO!" She screamed, trying to yank herself free of the soldier.

"What do you expect to find?"

"No...no... Daddy..." Aspen breathed. Noah pulled her into his embrace and she sobbed into her friend's shoulder. It was happening again. Suddenly she was pulled into a memory, tearing her away from the present.

_"__PEPPER! ASPEN!" Smoke had filled her room, and after her mother had collapsed she needed to hide. She needed to hide. If she could hide she would be safe. The fire couldn't reach her in the closet. She crawled to the closet, shutting the door behind her. _

_"__PEPPER! ASPEN!" Her mother was dead. Her mother was gone. She would never see her again. And now... _

_"__Daddy! I'm here! Daddy! Help me!" _

_"__Aspen! I'm coming, baby! I'm coming." But there was nothing left to face but the flames. Her father was dead. _

"He can't be dead!" She looked up, feeling wet, warm tears on her face. "The chances... the chances of me loosing both my parents to fires at two different points in time... No... it can't be..."

"But..." She looked back over to the others. Elsa Jean, in her brother's arms. Kate and Pepper held onto each other tightly, Josh and James in between them. Alexei and Irina, arm in arm, were staring at the flames in horror.

"No. No." Irina whispered. "They can't be dead."

"Mr. Rogers? Miss Stark?" A woman with long graying brown hair and big brown eyes came forward dressed in a SHIELD uniform. She held out her hand and shook Noah and Aspen's hands. "My name is Skye Ward. I'm Director in place of Maria Rogers while she's missing."

"M-missing?" Josh breathed.

"Your parents went missing almost three days ago." A tall man came forward that Aspen recognized as the Chief Officer of Strategics: Grant Ward. "This fire was set only yesterday, erasing any hope of us finding any evidence of who might have caused their disappearance."

"They're... they're just missing?" Aspen breathed.

"Yes." Director Ward nodded.

"Oh! Oh!" Aspen couldn't breath. She took in a gasping breath. Relief filled her heart, and she pulled herself from Noah's arms and rushed to her sister.

"We would like it if you all would come with us to talk about your parents. I know this is quite a shock after returning, but..."

"No. We need to know." Eric spoke up. "We need to know what happened."

* * *

><p><em>Eric Matthew Banner<em>

"We don't even know what happened." Director Ward frowned. She was sitting at the end of a long table. Eric and all his friends—his family—were sitting around the table.

"Tell us what you do know." Noah frowned. Eric looked around at them all. Aspen was the worst, tears streaming down her cheeks as she held tightly onto her sister. Pepper was pretty badly off too, she was so hurt and confused that all her thoughts were jumbling with everyone else's.

_It can't be... It can't... Dad can't be gone... How has the tower burned down?... Home is gone?...NO. _

Noah was putting up a wall of bravery. He was staying strong for his siblings but Eric could see right through his wall. While his little sister and brothers clung to him he was broken. Both Alexei and his sister, stoic as ever, but just like Noah were terrified. Elsa Jean was also crying, holding tightly onto Eric's arm. That's what killed him. His baby sister was hurting, and it was making him angry. He felt the Hulk now, ever present but so much more clearer because of the anger pulsing through him. He saw the green on the knuckles of his clenched fists. He tried to calm himself, but someone had done something to his family, and he wasn't going to stand for it.

"On Wednesday your mother didn't come in for work." Director Ward nodded to Noah.

"That was three days ago." Her husband frowned. "When Maria Rogers didn't show up we knew something was wrong. We called her."

"When that didn't work we called others of your family. First Captain Rogers, then Dr. Banner, Mr. Stark, and so on. No one was answering their phones. So we sent a team to investigate." Director Ward said.

"There was signs of struggle, but not enough. Whoever took them was powerful. They couldn't resist. They weren't strong enough."

_They didn't resist? That's wrong. It's so wrong..._Pepper's thoughts burst through Eric's mind again.

"Not even, dad?" Eric wondered.

"There's no evidence of the Hulk being released. Your father believed that-"

"That the Hulk was too dangerous. He was getting old, he couldn't control it as well. If he let the Hulk take over then there was no going back. It would kill him." Elsa Jean whispered.

"Yes. So we don't think your father let the Hulk take over. We think he almost went willingly."

"That's not like Dad." Eric sighed.

"No, it's not like any of them." Alexei shook his head.

"What about the fire?" Aspen asked, wiping away tears.

"We did a preliminary search of the tower, nothing very meticulous." Grant Ward said. "We retrieved the video feed from all the security cameras and we're looking over it now to see if we can find any clues. The fire started yesterday, presumably by the same person who stole away all your parents to cover up evidence."

"I can't believe it." Pepper whispered aloud.

"We're doing the best we can to find your parents. We need you to not worry about anything. We have the best teams working on it." Director Ward smiled encouragingly, but her eyes looked worried.

"What about..." Josh breathed, looking up from where he leaned against his big sister. "What about the tower?"

"Yeah... Where will we stay?" James asked.

"A long time ago your parents stayed in an old renovated bunker to protect themselves. That bunker was reserved afterwards for the Avengers only. It doesn't belong to SHIELD, it belongs to Miss Stark as of right now. We can take you there. You'll be safe." Grant Ward said.

_Dad's gone and we just need to be safe. _Pepper thought.

"You can all go there. Everything you'll need. It's all there. Don't worry." Skye Ward smiled again. "I'll have Agent Fury take you."

"Agent Fury?" Alexei frowned and looked over to Noah.

"Agent Fury retired a few years ago." Eric said.

"Given the present circumstances I've decided it'd be best for me to get back on the field." Nicholas J. Fury stood in the doorway, trench coat and all. He was frowning, and there was worry in his eyes, but he was a welcome sight for sure. "Come with me, kids. I'll take you home."

* * *

><p><em>Alexei Andrew Romanoff-Barton<em>

So. Their parents were gone. It was the first thing that had surprised him in so long, along with the fact that their home had exploded in flames and was now burnt to a crisp. He didn't know what to think. He didn't know what to imagine in terms of what happened and who did it, but he was angry. Far angrier than he should have been. He had to conceal it. He didn't want to worry his sister. She was broken enough with Clint and Tasha gone. _And Danny. That fucking asshole. I can't believe that he's somewhere out there right now probably having a hell of a good time while we deal with this shit. While our parents are in a load of trouble. Our parents could be dead and who knows where Daniel Banner is! _

Nick Fury drove them out from the city. It wasn't too far from the city, but it was far enough that it was fairly quiet.

"Don't worry about anything." He reminded them when he left them at the bunker. "SHIELD is searching for your parents. We will find them."

"Thank you, Sir." Noah smiled.

"Take care of yourselves. We'll let you know of any developments, okay?"

"Alright."


	8. Chapter 7 I can Deal

CHAPTER SEVEN

_Eric Matthew Banner_

The bunker was comfortable, with room enough for everyone. There were plenty of things to do as well. It was almost as if the Avengers used it as a secret get-away. There was a TV and games, an upright piano in the living room, posters lined the walls of the bunker, and there was even a huge stereo with plenty of albums and records to go around. Eric guessed the records were his Uncle Steve's some of them looked pretty old and precious.

After taking their bags, the only things left of their normal lives, to their rooms they all dispersed and found things to distract them from their anger and hurt. And Eric was scared. He couldn't get rid of the feeling of anger that was pulsing in his chest, and that terrified him more than anything. So, for a while he hid in his room, rocking back and forth while hugging his knees, hoping that the pain might just go away. _Mom and Dad are gone. They could be dead. _

Then he remembered the piano. He stood up, and left his room unattended. When he was young he let his emotions escape through his fingers and onto the keys, making something beautiful. And it calmed him. He still played often, and now that his own piano had been used as firewood to get rid of evidence he decided that this old piano down in the bunker would have to work. The only people who could play the piano in the Avengers were his mother, his Aunt Joy, and his Uncle Steve. They were way better than he was, he remembered as he stood above the piano, gently running his hands across the keys.

_Mom and Dad could be dead. They were taken. Whoever took them..._

He sat down, making sure the bench was back enough where his hands could rest on the keys without there being too much tension in his arms.

_"__Tension is bad. Relax your shoulders. You need to feel relaxed to play beautifully." _His mother had said. _I can't feel relaxed now. _

But he forced his shoulders to relax, and then he began to play. He hadn't known what he was going to be playing until he started. _Fur Elise, Beethoven. _It was the piece his mother had taught him not so long ago. Five years ago? It was her favorite piece for him to play. _"You play it with such grace, Eric! That was really beautiful."_ There was no grace in this piece now, though it was beautiful, it was undeniably angry.

_"__Music is a language used to convey your emotions."_ Juliette had said, _"I know you're angry but you must think of what Beethoven was trying to convey in this music. How do you think it is supposed to sound?" _

_"__Sad?" _

_"__Good. Can you play it like you're sad?" _

He was sad. Far beyond sad, and his fingers became more gentle on the keys as he played the first part of the piece. Gracefully allowing his wrists to lead his fingers up the keyboard, his eyes closed, remembering the score. _Beethoven had a lot less to worry about than I do, probably. _He remembered why he was here, in this stupid bunker with the slightly out of tune piano and glared. He was almost to the part his mother described as happy.

_"__This next part: how do you think it's supposed to sound?"_

_"__Happy?"_

_"__Yes. Lighter, happier!" _No. Eric's fingers froze. He couldn't stand to play it. The emotions he was allowing his fingers to convey were not happy. He could not be happy. It was too much. He skipped over it, back to the main section of the song. Sadness, and then pushing into the angry part.

_"__This next part: what emotion best describes it?" _

_"__Anger." _

_"__Yes, I think he is getting angry."_

_"__I can do angry!" Eric grinned, slamming his hands on the keys. Juliette smiled back and ruffled his hair. _

_"__Don't break the piano, son."_

_Don't break the piano, Eric. _He slammed his hands down on the chord, feeling anger build up in him. Let it out. Let it out. Harder. Softer. Now louder, angrier. As angry as you can get. Then the triples, up the piano, higher and higher. Now the chromatic scale. Faster! Angrier! Down the piano, deeper, deeper. Now the sad part again. His finger slipped. NO! SLAM! Breathing heavily he looked down where his fists had slammed down on the keys, clenched and an angry green. He felt the tears ready to fall and groaned.

"Eric." Elsa Jean had her arms crossed and was standing over by the sofas. It wasn't an angry arm cross, it was as though she were shielding herself from the world. "You didn't play..." She had tears in her eyes, "You didn't play the happy part." She choked on her words and Eric turned, letting his fists drop from the keys. The ringing stopped.

"I'm sorry, Elsie..." He whispered. She choked again, trying her best not to cry.

"We need..."

"Elsie..."

"Eric! What if they're dead!" She sobbed.

"They're not dead!" He cried, pushing the anger away. This was his baby sister, crying in front of him. Whoever took their parents, whoever kidnapped them and then burnt down their home- they would pay. He stood up and walked over to her. "Don't worry, SHIELD will find them. I know they're fine. They're not dead." Elsa grabbed him and clung tightly to him, sobbing into his shirt.

"What if they are? What are we going to do?"

"I'll protect you, Elsa Jean. I promise." _And I'm going to kill whoever did this. _

* * *

><p><em>Alexei Andrew Romanoff-Barton<em>

"To your left- your left! That's me on your right!" Alexei shouted as Kate's character spun the wrong direction and shot him right in the head.

"Sorry."

"Whatever! I'm sick of this anyways." Alexei threw down the remote. James and Josh sat on the floor at Kate and his feet, shoving their faces full of chocolate chip cookies, and looking absolutely mournful. Kate sighed and switched off the TV.

"What's wrong, Alyosha?" She asked.

"It's so messed up!" He glared.

"What is?"

"Not knowing! Not knowing anything! Just a week ago my mother was kicking ass, now she could be dead for all we know. How? Who could do something like this? Who could steal away all the Avengers in one day? One second they're there and the next they're not? It doesn't make any sense!"

"They aren't dead." Josh spoke up.

"How do you know?!" James gasped.

"Boys!" Katie frowned. "Stop it! SHIELD is going to fix this. SHIELD will find them and soon everything will be back to normal."

"As much as I'd like to support SHIELD, because I work for SHIELD, I just don't think that any of what you just said is plausible." Alexei glared.

"Well, gee! Thanks for sharing that in front of the thirteen year olds who just lost their parents, asshole!"

"WE ALL LOST OUR PARENTS!" Alexei screamed. "JUST BECAUSE THEY'RE NINE YEARS YOUNGER THAN ME DOESN'T MEAN THEY GET SPECIAL TREATMENT. Our parents are missing! They could be dead! That's the truth!"

"Alexei!" Kate gasped.

"We're doomed." Josh moaned.

"What if they are dead?!" James whispered. "I didn't even hug mom goodbye."

"They're not dead." Kate said.

"Stop living in a fantasy world, Kitty." Alexei glared, "There's no way of discerning that for sure." He stood to leave.

"Alexei Clintovich!" Kate snapped, "I will not be dragged down by your pessimism."

"Fine by me. Just don't try and drag me back up. I don't need your help."

* * *

><p><em>Noah Anthony Rogers<em>

"Check it out." Irina held out the large circular shield.

"Hey, that's a pretty accurate replica." They stood in the middle of the training room in the bunker, which was fairly large, considering. They had found the weapons store on the other end of the room, and had been searching through it. Irina found one of her father's bows and the shield. Noah took it from her and ran his hands over the front. For a replica, it was surprising light- quite like his father's shield. He held it and then turned around, throwing it as he did. It bounced off the wall.

"Hey! Careful!" Irina cried, as the shield flew past her. He caught it and grinned.

"I'm always careful."

"You _are_ good!" She smiled brightly, but there was sadness in her eyes.

"This..." Noah looked down at the shield in his hands, weighing it again. Katie's replica shield was pretty heavy compared to this. This was light... light enough to be made of vibranium. There was no doubt in Noah's mind that this shield was indeed the real thing. "This isn't a replica." He said.

"How can you tell?"

"It's too light, and the paint is just the way it should be. Besides, why would dad need a replica? He carries his shield with him wherever he goes."

"So, how did it get here than?" Irina asked. Noah frowned.

"I have no idea... but I think it was left for me and Kate."

"So... this bow then... was it left for me?"

"Uncle Clint has plenty of bows, I'm sure that's just one of them, but perhaps this means they knew they were in trouble." Noah frowned. Irina picked up the bow.

"Well, if I'm going to use this I'm going to need to practice. It's got a heavier pull back than mine does. I'm pulling back twenty-five pounds and Dad's pulling back forty. That's quite a difference." She strapped on an arm-guard and her finger tabs as she spoke, and then pulled back on the bow string. She gritted her teeth and Noah watched as her arms tensed up and pulled with all their might. She stood there for a moment, her arm slowly beginning to shake as she held back the weight. Then she brought her bow down and slowly released the string, so that it wouldn't dry-fire. Firing without an arrow knocked, Noah knew, could break the bowstring.

"Show me how to do that."

"You want to learn how to fire a bow?"

"I've never done it before. Sure."

"Alright." Irina grinned. "First we have to figure out which one of your eyes is dominant."

"Already know that. It's my right."

"Right. Okay. So you hold the bow with your left hand, and pull back the string with your right arm." She handed him the bow. He gripped it firmly in his left hand, and then she yanked off her arm-guard and grabbed a pair of finger tabs that had obviously been Clint's and were too big for her. She gently took his left arm and strapped the arm-guard onto it.

"This is to protect your arm from the string. Let me tell you, if you smack your skin with that thing when you release your arrow it's going to hurt like hell."

"Okay." She took his right hand and gently pulled on the finger tabs, strapping the end around his wrist.

"This is to protect your fingers from the string. It allows you to pull back without too much pain, because you can't pull back forty pounds of weight with just this tiny string. Trust me, it's painful."

"I trust you." He grinned, looking down into her eyes.

"Is it okay that I'm having fun even though our parents could be dead?" She asked with a sigh. He frowned, setting his hand on her shoulder,

"We have to trust SHIELD."

"But what about your father? What about the shield? How did it get here? What really happened?"

"Don't worry about any of that now, okay? Lets just do this. I don't want to think about any of it."

"Alright." She came around to face him. "When you aim and you're ready to release, don't just let go, okay? You need to pull back as you release, so actually pull your arm back as you let go."

"Alright."

"So. Knock your arrow." She handed him one of Clint's arrows, longer than hers because his arms were longer. He set the end of the arrow down on the arrow rest on the bow and knocked the end of the arrow onto the string.

"Alright."

"Pull back. Dad was always against sights so I'm going to have to show you how to aim with the arrow. Yay! So pull the string all the way back to your chin."

"That _is _heavy."

"Dad's stronger than he looks." Irina smiled.

"So are you." Noah frowned, looking over at her from the corner of his eye.

"When you aim with the arrow you need to pull back to your cheek, and look down to the arrow point. That's how you're going to aim. Where the arrow point is pointing that's where it's going to land."

"Okay." Noah pointed to the target as he closed his left eye and looked down the shaft of the arrow.

"Here." He felt her warm hand on the bottom of his arm, and she gently lifted up his elbow. She held his elbow in position. Her breath was warm on his shoulder as she whispered, "You want your elbow higher when you fire. Alright. Ready? Remember to pull back when you fire."

"Yes, ma'am."

"Alright, Captain... whenever you're ready."

"I'm not a Captain."

"No... not yet...Fire!" He released the arrow.

* * *

><p><em>Aspen Victoria Elaina Stark<em>

She was hungry, and needed something to keep her mind off of her father. Her thoughts were so jumbled with Pepper's that she couldn't think straight. She still felt the tears on her cheeks when she went into her kitchen to find some canned soup.

_Dad... dad is gone... they're all gone...the house is burned down... how can this happen to me?... how can this happen to anyone?... who did this? I'll kill them... so many thoughts, Aspen, it hurts... I can't control anything...too shocked...to much to see and think about... Dad could be dead. He can't be dead... it's so wrong... _

Their thoughts were so mixed that Aspen couldn't tell hers and Pepper's apart. That was the disadvantage of having a strong bond like that, she supposed. She opened one of the cupboards and was faced with something fascinating, something that would help everything. It would help her forget, just like she wanted to. Vodka.

_So painful...it hurts so much... Aspen, it hurts so much... how can daddy be gone? _

She reached out, grabbed the bottle and sunk the floor, opening it as she sat leaning against the counter. This would help her forget all of this shit. She took a swig, and gasped. Yuck, but it already made her feel better. Maybe it was just her head telling her it did, but she didn't care. She took another. And then another. And yet another.

_I'm an alcoholic, Aspen. That means that even though you're twenty-one now you need to be careful. You could have the tendency... _Go away!

No more thoughts about dad were allowed. She took another swig, and then another.

_That's why I don't drink anymore. If I start again, I'm afraid I won't be able to stop. Then the one thing that helps me forget will be the death of me. That's why it's so important to remember. As much as it hurts, remembering helps you. It makes you stronger. _SHUT UP.

She took another drink, tears streaming down her cheeks as Pepper's thoughts babbled in her head, and she tried to suppress her own. No more thinking, just forgetting. Just stop it all. As the bottle slowly emptied she slowly forgot, leaning there on the kitchen floor, trying not to remember the things that her father had taught her for the first time in all her life.

* * *

><p><em>She cowered behind the sofa and watched her father drink down yet another bottle of whiskey, sobbing and babbling to himself. It was almost as if he didn't want to. Her little five year old self was scared, but not of him, of what he was doing to himself. Of how pitiful he was, how broken. <em>

_"__Tony." Uncle Steve stood above him, arms crossed. "This has to end." Her father shook his head, sobbing. And for a moment it didn't look like he would respond. Then he looked up smiling. _

_"__Oh, Steve..." He sighed, "Have you come at last to finish it?" _

_"__I'm not here to kill you, Tony. I'm here to kill what's killing you. This needs to stop. You're going to die."_

_"__What does it matter?" Tony sighed. "Pepper's dead. I don't need to live." Steve slammed his fist down on the table. _

_"__WAKE UP, TONY!" He shouted. "This is not the Tony Stark I know! This is not the Tony Stark who was in love with life, and fun, and was always excited to see new things, to start new things, to build new things! This isn't the Tony Stark who became my friend! This isn't you! Your daughter needs that Tony right now!" _

_"__I can't be that Tony anymore!" _

_"__Something needs to be done about this, Tony! I'm not going to let you drown in your miseries!"_

_"__Too late." Tony sighed, he reached out to grab another bottle of whiskey, Steve grabbed it and threw it against the wall. "HEY!" Tony gasped. _

_"__I'm here to kill what's killing you, Tony. I'm here to fix this. You can't do this. I won't let you." _

_The room around her faded and she was in a cemetery. She saw her father standing before a tombstone. He was wearing a black coat and sunglasses, though it was a cloudy day. He stood with his hands in his pockets. _

_"__Pep..." He sighed. She came around to see the stone. It was one she had seen so often before. Her mother's. "I'm sorry... These past few months have been hard. I've been a horrible friend, and a horrible father. I'm going to change that, I promise. Now that HYDRA has been defeated I can be the father Aspen and Pepper both deserve. I hope that wherever you are you're happy and maybe you understand some of the horrible things I've done this last year because I failed to save you. It was all me. I failed." She saw the tears in her father's eyes. "You and I both know that I've had trouble with alcohol before... well, never again. I swear to you I'm never going to touch another drink in all my life." He knelt down before the stone and gently set his hand on top of it, letting his tears flow freely, "for my daughters' sakes, for my life, and for you, I promise." Then he looked down directly at her, "Aspen, do you want to say something to Mommy?" Aspen remembered this memory. She smiled and nodded. _

_"__Mommy..." Suddenly the memory changed. _

_"__Aspen." She looked up. Everything seemed frozen. Her father remained staring at the tombstone, the wind ceased and there was silence. Pepper Stark stood above her own tombstone. _

_"__Mom?" _

_"__Aspen, wake up! You need to wake up! Stop this madness! It's going to kill you!"_

_"__Mom?!" _

_"__This is not the Aspen Stark I know! The Aspen Stark I know is beautiful, strong, courageous, and creative! Right now, your sister, your friends, they need that Aspen Stark!"_

_"__But Dad's gone!" _

_"__It doesn't matter, I know you can overcome this, sweetheart!" _

_"__Mom, I can't... It's too..." _

_"__I'm here to fix this, baby, I'm not going to let you do this anymore." Pepper whispered. _

_"__Aspen." Tony looked up. "I'm an alcoholic, Aspen. That means that even though you're twenty-one now you need to be careful. You could have the tendency to fall into that sin. Don't. It clouds your judgment, it burns out all creativity, and it destroys your life. It kills you. But even worse than that, it makes you forget. That's why I don't drink anymore. If I start again, I'm afraid I won't be able to stop. Then the one thing that helps me forget will be the death of me. That's why it's so important to remember. As much as it hurts, remembering helps you. It makes you stronger." _

_"__Aspen! Open your eyes!" Pepper breathed, from where she stood. Both Tony and Aspen looked up. _

_"__Listen to your mother, Aspen." Tony smiled. _

_"__ASPEN!" _

_"__I'm listening! I'm listening!" _

_"__ASPEN, WAKE UP!" _

* * *

><p><em>Eric Matthew Banner<em>

At last he was alone in his room. The level of anger that he was fighting with right then was too terrifying to deal with with his sister around. So, using the excuse that he needed to sleep and that she should try to, he hurried away to his room. He didn't want to hurt anyone. If the Hulk got loose it would probably be bad, so to calm his anger he lay in bed, staring at the ceiling hoping that everyone was right, and that his parents weren't dead.

_I'm going to do something about this. _He thought. _Tomorrow I'll go see SHIELD, and offer my help. I can't just sit around idle while they work to find our parents. I need to do __**something. **_

But still, the Hulk lurked. He had to be careful. _If SHIELD finds out I'm a risk they wouldn't trust me. _He remembered the hell his father had to go through in order to earn SHIELD's trust, everyone's trust really. Plans of what would happen if he went crazy, distrust, secrets, and hate. He couldn't deal with that. Not while his parents were missing. He couldn't deal with that without his father's guidance. He needed to keep this all a secret. _It's going to be hard, but you can do it, Eric. I know you can. _


	9. All the 'Kids'

Sorry for such a long break! (I mean not too long, but a little longer than I'd even like). This week is going to be extremely busy! Christmas! :D

Okay, someone requested that all the children's names be posted or shared so that they know who comes from what family and so on. So here you all go. The ages are all what they're turning the year this book takes place. The book starts in June, so some of them are already these ages and some of them aren't yet. They're birthdays, of course, will be included in the book, but I also wrote them down here.

**Aspen Victoria Elaina Stark:**

Twenty-Eight Years Old

Born on October 15th (so she's actually twenty-seven almost twenty-eight at the beginning of the book).

**Pepper Estella Stark:**

Twenty-five Years old

Birthday celebrated June 28th (the day HYDRA was defeated)

**Alexei Andrew Romanoff-Barton:**

Twenty-two years old

Born on May 15th

**Irina Yumiko Romanoff-Barton:**

Nineteen years old

Born on December 12th

**Maddie Louise Odinson (Thorson) **

Twenty-eight years old

Born on October 21st

**Maggie Frigga Odinson (Thorson)**

Twenty-eight years old

Born on October 21st

**Niel Steven Odinson (Thorson)**

Twenty-three years old

Born on October 17th

**Finley Kristin Odinson (Lokison)**

Twenty-two years old

Born on March 2nd

**Jordan Craig Odinson (Lokison)**

Twenty years old

Born on June 13

**Helena Idunn Odinson (Lokison)**

Sixteen years old

Born on April 2nd

**Noah Anthony Rogers **

Twenty years old

Born on August 23rd

**Kathryn Maria Rogers**

Seventeen Years old

Born on January 19th

**Joshua Howard Rogers**

Thirteen years old

Born on February 11th

**James Peter Rogers**

Thirteen years old

Born on February 11th

**Eric Matthew Banner**

Twenty-two years old

Born on July 14th

**Daniel Bruce Banner**

Eighteen years old

Born on November 20th

**Elsa Jean Banner**

Sixteen years old

Born on March 12th


	10. Chapter 8 To the Rescue

**First, i'd like to apologize for any stupid grammar or spelling mistakes I've made in the past :P**

**I was just reading through all the former scenes with Steve and Maria and there are some grammar mistakes that made me shake my head. I guess that's what you get for writing a lot of this at one o'clock in the morning. Ha! :D**

**Anyways! Here's chapter eight! Thanks for continuing to read!**

**-randomblueboots**

* * *

><p>CHAPTER EIGHT<p>

_Aspen Victoria Elaina Stark_

Aspen shot out of sleep with a killer headache. She was sprawled out across the kitchen floor, the empty bottle of vodka clutched in her right hand. Disgusted, she threw it to the side and scrambled to her feet. No! No! Getting up too fast made her dizzy and she clutched the counter to steady herself before dashing off down the hall to find a bathroom. Dizziness came in waves as she crashed through the bathroom door. She barely made it to the toilet in time before she vomited. She'd never had a hangover before but she figured that this must be it. She leaned against the bathroom wall breathing heavily. Her dreams were so vivid they felt almost real. She stood slowly and rinsed her mouth out, then grabbed a new toothbrush from the cupboard and brushed her teeth. Suddenly she realized she couldn't hear Pepper's thoughts.

_Something's wrong! Pepper! Pepper! _She stumbled out of the bathroom and crashed right into Noah.

"Woah! Aspen, slow down! What's going on?"

"Where's Pepper? I can't hear her!"

"Pepper's fast asleep on the sofa. Are you okay, you look...?"

"Augh... no..." She couldn't feel Pepper at all, she could always feel when Pepper was asleep. Something was very wrong. "No! Pepper!"

"Aspen! Settle down." Noah grabbed her arm. "Come here." He took her over to the living room. "See? Fast asleep, like a baby. She's fine." Aspen looked down at the couch where Pepper was curled up with a blanket, fast asleep.

"Dad was right..." She murmured. _Alcohol clouds the mind... _

"What? What was he right about?" Noah frowned. "Aspen, are you drunk?"

"Drunk?" She looked up at him. "N-no..."

"Please, I've seen a lot of hangovers and this is one of them... a pretty bad one too. What did you do?" She groaned.

"There was a bottle... a bottle of vodka..."

"Aspen?! What would Uncle Tony say?"

"I'm sorry, okay! I know what Dad would say." She swallowed down her tears. "I had horrible dreams, and it tasted disgusting anyway, and I threw up so I think I learned my lesson. I feel awful, Noah, just leave me alone." Noah grinned,

"I think I've got just the thing to cheer you up."

"Nothing can cheer me up right now, Noah. Nothing. Dad's gone... all our parents are gone... I'm sick... I just want to go back to sleep."

"Aspen, come on! It'll only take a second. Irina and I were exploring the bunker today and we found some stuff you might like."

"Alright, fine. I'm coming." She followed Noah down the hall, but almost fell over. So he grabbed her arm and they went arm and arm down the hallway towards two big rooms. Before they reached them though, Irina came out of the first and when she saw Noah she grinned, but seeing Aspen he grin turned to an icy glare. Still feeling like hell and a little ticked off that Noah hadn't let her just go to sleep Aspen lashed out.

"What the hell are you glaring at, you bitch?!"

"EXCUSE ME!?"

"Woah!" Irina dove at Aspen. Aspen growled and threw a punch, which Irina easily dodged. The younger girl spun around, tripping Aspen. But Aspen grabbed her arm and dragged her down to the floor with her where she punched her in the face.

"ASPEN!" Noah shouted. "IRINA!"

"You think you can have whatever you want, isn't that right, little miss Stark?"

"Well, it's not like you're not wrapped around your daddy's finger." Aspen hissed.

"How dare you!" Irina swung a punch, hitting Aspen squarely in the cheek. They rolled and scratched, hissing like feral cats fighting over a piece of food.

"LADIES!" Noah grabbed Irina's shirt and yanked her off of Aspen.

"LET ME GO, ROGERS!" Irina kicked and squirmed, but Noah wasn't about to let go anytime soon.

"Get up, Aspen!" Noah shouted. "I don't know what that was all about, but I think we're all on edge here, okay? Our parents are gone, our house is burnt down, we've been thrown into this new place, and we're all feeling it. That's all the more reason _not _to turn on one another. We need to be united. We need to work together. We need to be a family." Aspen stood shakily, glaring at Irina.

"Well, I don't need some stupid-ass archer judging my life choices." Aspen snapped, thinking that perhaps the glare was judging of her drunken state.

"Why you little-" Irina tried to pull herself away from Noah again, but he only tightened his grip.

"Aspen, you're drunk. That's what happens when your drunk, people judge you. Get over it."

"Y-you're drunk?!" Irina frowned, and then she threw her head back and laughed.

"It's not funny, you bitch!" Aspen dove forward again, Irina put up her fists.

"Hey! HEY! HEYYY!" Noah shouted. He jumped in between them. Holding both of them back. "Your both grown women! Now start acting like it!" Irina put her fists down. Aspen stepped back.

"I'm sorry, Irina." Irina angrily yanked herself away from Noah's grip, she glared up at the tall young man,

"I'm no family of your's." She cursed him in Russian, "And I never want to be." She straightened her coat as she walked back down the hall, spitting out profanities in her mother's first language.

Aspen watched Noah stare after her. "Please forgive me." She whispered.

"A Stark, asking for forgiveness. That's pretty incredible."

"She was just glaring at me, and I don't... I don't know what came over me."

"Like I said, we're all on edge. Being drunk doesn't help." He grinned.

"Are you and her, are you going to be okay?" Aspen asked.

"Me and her? What about me and her?" He shrugged, "It'll pass."

"Yeah, but..."

"Aspen, we're friends, we get in fights sometimes, it doesn't mean she won't get over it. We'll be fine."

"Her words were pretty harsh."  
>"What's this about?" Noah squinted down at her. <em>Oh nothing. Just that Irina has this huge crush on you, and I'm pretty sure you like her back, except now I've just made her really pissed at you for not taking her side or something equally dumb. <em>

"Oh Nothing..." Aspen shrugged.

"Alright, come on. You've got to see this." Noah led her to the end of the hall where the two doorways to the two rooms were. "This is the training room." Noah gestured to the left. "And this is something even better... I mean, in your point of view." Noah opened the door on the right and led Aspen in, flicking on the lights as they did so.

"A... A..." Aspen stared around her at the lab, huge computer screens, counters, supplies... it was beautiful. "A lab!" She breathed, but then she saw what was in the very center: the blue plastic casing.

"Oh my god." She breathed, walking up the case. "Is... Is Jarvis here?"

"Not that I know." Noah shrugged.

"Jarvis?" There was no reply. Aspen spun around and saw that none of the computers were on, none of the electronics were on in the room. "There's gotta be a system reboot somewhere around here."

"Is this it?" Noah gestured to a large green button on the wall next to the light switch.

"Yeah! Punch it!" Noah pressed the button with the palm of his hand.

"System Reboot requires a password."

"Jarvis! It's me, Aspen! I need you to reboot the systems, I have to see..." She looked over at the blue casing again. "I need you to remove the blue casing. I need to see what's underneath."

"System Reboot requires a password."

"What could the password be?" Noah asked.

"I don't know, goddammit!" Aspen gasped.

"What about... Avengers Assemble."

"Incorrect."

"No. My dad's not an idiot. It wouldn't be something as stupid as that." Aspen frowned, trying to think. "Override Password, authorization Aspen Victoria Elaina Stark- co-owner of Stark Industries."

"Override denied."

"Who can override the password?" Aspen asked.

"Only an Avenger." Jarvis replied.

"Fuck you, I am an Avenger."

"Lets not resort to foul language." Jarvis said.

"Jarvis, when we're through with this I am going to kill you."

"As you wish, Miss Stark. You have three more chances to give me the correct password or I will go into lock down."

"Aspen..." Noah frowned.

"Augh! How about..." _What would dad set his password for? Probably something that he would never say aloud in a million years... _"I'm sorry, I was wrong."

"Incorrect."

"Dammit!"

"Two chances left."

"I was wrong!"

"Incorrect. One chance left."

"How about..."

"ASPEN AND PEPPER!" Noah cried.

"NOAH!" Aspen screamed. _Now it's locked! Now we'll never-_

"Password Accepted, Rebooting Systems. Please wait."

"Wh-what?!" Aspen gasped.

"Every father uses their children as passwords." Noah said.

"You idiot!" Aspen screamed.

"Excuse me?"

"What if you had gotten wrong! We could have been locked out! And then what?"

"Well, what would you have guessed? Because it certainly wouldn't have been that!"

"Oh! Does it bother you that my brain isn't working so well this morning?"

"Hey, I'm not the one who got drunk and is now suffering from a hangover." Noah shouted.

"You got drunk?" Alexei stood in the doorway of the lab.

"It's none of your business, Barton."

"Oh no, I think it's my business. You've woken up the entire house."

"Oh, pardon me for being such a burden on you all. I'm just trying to do something important."

"Aspen, you're not a burden." Elsa Jean stood behind Alexei, her arms crossed.

"Guys, I made a mistake, okay. I'm not thinking right, I feel like hell, so I'm pissed off at everyone, and-"

"We're all on edge today." Noah said.

"Don't interrupt me!" Aspen screamed. "Yes, we're all on edge. Last night I just wanted to forget so I found some vodka-"

"By rights that's my mother's vodka."

"I'LL BUY YOU SOME NEW VODKA!" Aspen screamed.

"System reboot complete. Welcome back, Miss Stark." Aspen spun around.

"Jarvis! Take the cover off of the thing in the center of the room."

"As you wish."

"Remind me to never take you to a bar. You obviously get angry when you consume alcohol."

"OH SHUT YOUR TRAPS!" Aspen shouted. The hands came down from the ceiling again and removed the blue plastic, Aspen drew closer as IronMaid mark one was revealed. Her father had fixed it, and sent it here. But why would he send it here? She had to think for a moment longer because the fog from the vodka was still present.

"I know what Dad wants me to do." She breathed.

"What?" Elsa Jean asked.

"Find him."

* * *

><p><em>Eric Matthew Banner<em>

It was angry screaming that woke him up that morning, and it didn't exactly help his level of depression and anger. There was yelling in the hall, and then farther down the hall. It sounded like in the lab. He sighed, rolled over and tried to go back to sleep. After a few minutes he succeeded in doing so.

"Eric." He groaned. "Eric. Wake up, please. I know you're mad, but I need your help." Aspen stood over his bed. He groaned, rubbing his eyes in the brightness of the light she had flicked on.

"What is it?" He asked.

"Look, you know how when I got home two weeks ago my dad had a gift for me?"

"Yeah?"

"Well, it was an IronMaid Mark One."

"So like IronMan except for a girl?"

"Not just any girl- me!"

"So what?"

"It's here."

"What?"

"I know right! It should have burned with the rest of the tower. I mean, not burned because it's metal, but... you know what I mean. But why would it be here?"

"Maybe he was just working on it here in solitude."

"No. No. There's no sign of any work being done in the lab."

"So... maybe he cleaned it up." Aspen laughed.

"Have you seen my dad's lab at home?"

"Okay, I'll take that as a no. So, what do you think?" Eric asked.

"I think Dad knew something was coming that they couldn't defeat and so he sent the suit here, a safe place where I'd find it. And you know what else adds to my theory?"

"What?"

"Uncle Steve's shield is here too. Noah and Irina found it."

"What? How did it get here?"

"I think IronMaid must have been programmed to bring it here as well."

"Why? Why would they send them here?"

"They want us to come find them." Aspen breathed.

"Wait. You want to go after our parents?"

"Yes." Aspen nodded. _She's crazy. Absolutely insane. But what was it I was saying last night? I was saying that I wanted to help SHIELD find our parents. Wouldn't it be better to help my friends? _

"I'm so in."

"Great!"

"Who else is involved?" Eric asked.

"Noah, Alexei, and Pepper. We didn't want to get the others involved. They're too young."

"Yes, I agree, though I think they'll hate us for it."

"Should I bring the others in?"

"Go ahead." Eric nodded. Aspen turned towards the door while Eric pulled his pants on underneath his blankets and then climbed out of bed. Alexei, Noah, and Pepper came in. They all gathered around Eric's bed.

"Alright, Miss Stark, what's your first plan of action?" Alexei asked.

"I need to get the footage from the security cameras back, or at least make copies of them onto thumb drives. SHIELD has stupid people on their teams. If I can get my hands on that footage I could examine it and figure out what happened that day where SHIELD couldn't."

"Where would they keep something like that?" Noah asked.

"They'd be analyzing it in the computer rooms." Alexei said.

"But they're not just going to let you waltz in there and steal evidence, Penni." Eric frowned.

"No, but if I can get my hands on a SHIELD uniform and badge..." She looked over at Noah.

"Don't look at me, I don't work for SHIELD."

"No, but you have a mother who does." Aspen smiled.

"The tower burned down." Noah said.

"Have you noticed how the wardrobes here are stocked full? Lets see if we can't find an extra uniform and badge here." Aspen said.

"Still, it's not going to be good enough. Someone's going to notice you're using Director Rogers' or Natasha Romanoff-Barton's ID card. Especially the Director."

"Then someone's going to have to keep the director occupied." Aspen frowned. Suddenly Alexei's phone rang. He sighed, and frowned when he saw the number. He flipped it open.

"Hello?" There was a long pause. "Yes, of course... Look, Aspen's having a difficult time with this situation. How about Noah, Eric, and I come down today?...Three o'clock?...Sounds good to me... alright, thank you, Director... Goodbye." Alexei hung up with a grin. "We just got ourselves an interview with the director at three o'clock. How does that sound for a distraction?"

"Alexei, you're the best. Let's find that uniform and get to work, and remember, no one else needs to know about this."

"This is going to end badly." Eric sighed, the feeling of worry tickling the back of his neck.

"Stop being so pessimistic." Aspen grinned. "This is going to be brilliant."

_Oh dear..._


	11. Chapter 9 Things go Wrong

_Noah Anthony Rogers_

"Good afternoon, Mr. Rogers, Agent Romanoff-Barton, and Mr. Banner."

"Good afternoon." Noah nodded. They all shook hands with Director Skye Ward and she led them up towards her meeting room.

"If Agent Romanoff-Barton didn't inform you very well of what exactly is going on then here it is. I've summoned the oldest of each of your families here to talk about your parents. Unfortunately, as Agent Romanoff-Barton told me on the phone, it sounds like Miss Stark is not doing so well in this situation."

"No, she's not well at all." Alexei sighed.

"We want to know what exactly your parents were doing or working on before you left for Asgard." They entered the meeting room and all sat down around the table. "We can start with you, Mr. Rogers, if that's okay. Did your parents say or do anything strange, or act strange before you left for Asgard?"

"Not at all." Noah frowned. "That's why it was so shocking, I think. My parents acted just the way they had every day I've known them. Happy about everything, in love with each other, excited about their kids. Mom seemed to be liking her new job, Dad's been teaching Kate about how to use his shield, just like he taught me. There was no sign that made me think things were different. If something had been different, I would have noticed it, I assure you."

"What about you, Agent Romanoff-Barton?"

"No, nothing of the sort. My parents were fine before we left for Asgard and now they're gone. What would do something like this? _Who _would do something like this?"

"We're not sure, but we're trying our best to figure it out." Director Ward sighed. "And you, Mr. Banner?"

"My parents were fine as well. I would know too. I can always tell when something is wrong. Especially when it comes to my family." Eric frowned. _Aspen, you better be getting those files because this is going much faster than we anticipated. _Noah thought.

_Relax, kill-joy. _Pepper said. _She's working as fast as she can._

* * *

><p><em>Aspen Victoria Elaina Stark<em>

She passed through the swishing doors like she had purpose, followed by Pepper. They both were dressed in SHIELD agent uniforms and they each had their own badge, Pepper's was Aunt Tasha's and Aspen's was Aunt Maria's. She followed Alexei's instructions to get to the computer lab, right, left, right again, and there it was, labeled very clearly.

_Alright, ready?_

_I can't guarantee that this will work._ Pepper thought. _I've never done so many people before._

_I know you can do it, Essie, for dad. For all our Aunts and Uncles._

_You know if it doesn't work then we'll have to abort the mission, right? Because they'll be aware that someone's trying to get into their heads._

_Just do it. _Aspen watched as Pepper concentrated. She closed her eyes tightly and placed her fingers on her temples. She gritted her teeth.

_How many are in there?_

_Nine._

_Alright. I think... there he is. I've got my head in all of theirs. Time to do the deed. _She frowned again, scrunching up her eyes and nose tighter. Aspen heard a series of thumps and she slowly opened the door with her keycard.

_You did it, Essie! All nine are sleeping like babies._

_Great! Wow! I didn't think I could. _

_Alright. Lets get to work. You keep watch. Stand by me and if you feel anyone coming, let me now. _

_Yes, ma'am. _Aspen plugged in the thumb drive and found the files she needed. Then she began the long process of transferring them over to the thumb drive.

_Please stall as long as possible, Noah. This is going to take a little while. _

* * *

><p><em>Alexei Andrew Romanoff-Barton<em>

_Aspen wants you all to stall as long as possible. _Essie's voice was heard in his head. He sighed.

"Well, that about wraps this up young men." Skye Ward stood.

"We were wondering..." Noah sounded desperate, "If you've made any...umm... progress on where our parents might be."

"Unfortunately we haven't made very much progress, and the progress that we have made is confidential."

"Oh." Noah stood to leave. Alexei knew Aspen wasn't getting enough time.

"CONFIDENTIAL?! THIS IS OUR PARENTS WE'RE TALKING ABOUT HERE! HOW IS IT CONFIDENTIAL?" He screamed, slamming his fist on the table.

"Alexei!" Noah gasped.

"Agent Romanoff-Barton, you of all people should know that SHIELD has it's reasons for every secret it chooses to keep."

"I don't appreciate that when it comes to a life or death situation, Director." Alexei snarled. "I want to know the truth! What are you hiding from us? What information-" An alarm was suddenly blaring.

"INTRUDERS! INTRUDERS!" _Shit! Aspen, what the hell did you do? _Grant Ward burst through the doors of the meeting room.

"We're under attack!" He cried. _Under attack? Now that was not part of the plan._

"Where?"

"The first hangar."

"Come with me, boys. It might be the same people who got your parents. You're probably safer with me." Alexei, Noah, and Eric followed Grant Ward and Skye Ward to the overhang above the hangar. Huge glass windows separated them form the scene below. They looked down in horror at what was happening. Below, in the hangar, his sister, Elsa Jean, and Katie Rogers stood in full array. Irina held her father's bow. She was dressed in black and purple leather, with her arm-guard and finger tabs safely secure. On her back was a quiver with numerous different types of arrows in it. She had her hair pulled back into a ponytail. Kate was wearing something almost exactly the same as her father's old outfit, except obviously fit for a woman. Instead of a hood, like her dad. Her suit came with a simple blue eye mask. She held her father's vibranium shield on her arm. Lastly, Elsa Jean wore simple clothes, but held her fists up as though she were prepared to fight. And they were. And they did.

They fought bravely against numerous SHIELD agents.

_What is going on!? _Pepper screamed in their heads.

_The young ladies strike SHIELD. Have no idea why. _

"What the hell are they doing?" Skye Ward gasped.

"Lets go down there! We might be able to calm them down." Noah said.

"No. Stay here." Director Ward turned on her com, "Calm those girls down and bring them up here. They're breaking the law. I'm giving them one chance."

* * *

><p><em>Eric Matthew Banner<em>

Elsa Jean was strong, and she fought bravely for herself. As long as she wasn't paying attention to the other girls, but still watching one another's backs, then they stayed good against the SHIELD agents.

"Please, we can get them to stop."

"I said no." Director Ward glared.

"But-"

"Stand Down, Avengers! Stand down!" Katie threw her SHIELD and knocked the megaphone out of the agent's hand.

_What the hell do they think they're doing? _Pepper's voice cried.

_Perhaps they think they're being helpful._ Eric frowned.

Suddenly the guard Katie had used her shield on tased her.

"NO!" Noah gasped, turning towards Grant Ward. "Let me go down there and stop them. This is all a big misunderstanding-"

"Look!" Eric gasped. Elsa Jean saw her friend on the ground and screamed, raising her fists, which were glowing green. Suddenly, from her chest, there was an explosion in a wave of green, knocking down any SHIELD agents in the proximity, almost like a pulse of pure energy.

"What the hell was that?" Director Ward breathed. Eric knew what it was almost instantly.

"She... she has gamma radiation too."

"TOO? What do you mean_ too?!" _Noah gasped.

"She just made an explosion of pure energy by harnessing the power of the gamma radiation in her cells." Eric whispered. "That was amazing." Elsa Jean turned towards the other guards coming in, obviously seething with anger.

"Don't you dare touch my friends, again!" Elsa Jean cried.

"Take the angry one down!" Grant Ward shouted into his com, "I repeat, take her down, by any means necessary!"

"What?!" Eric spun around to face the man. "WHAT?!"

"Alexei, get down there and stop your sister and the others! Eric, come on! Let's go get them." Eric felt the boiling anger within his body, and succumbed to it. His father could control the Hulk, so so could he.

"DON'T YOU DARE TOUCH MY BABY SISTER!" He screamed.

"ERIC! NO!" Noah gasped. But it was too late. Eric released the Hulk.

* * *

><p><em>Aspen Victoria Elaina Stark<em>

_What's going on out there? _Aspen thought as she watched the files download, one after another.

_It looks like things aren't exactly going as planned. _Aspen looked up at her sister.

_What do you mean? _

_I can sense Katie, Elsa Jean, and Irina. They're not far. _

_WHAT?! What are they doing here? _

"INTRUDERS! INTRUDERS!"

"We are under attack! All specialist and field agent personnel, please report to hangar one!"

_Goddammit! _

_Actually, it might be a lifesaver. It sounds like the meeting was coming to a close and we'd be out of time anyway. This might buy us a few more minutes. _Pepper frowned.

_Well, I'm going as fast as I can. There's a lot of security footage and it takes up a lot of space, okay? _

_Alright- Woah! _

_What? _

_Elsa Jean just got really mad. She just... she just exploded? _

_What? _

_Some sort of energy just drained from her. I don't know. She's kind of shocked herself. Uh oh..._

_What? _

_We just lost Eric. He's become the Hulk. _

_Shit. This going way off track. _

_Settle down and just hurry up!_

_These files are going to take as long as they want, Essie. _

_That's not good enough! Someone's coming!_

_Alright! Alright...Done! _Aspen grabbed the thumb drive and shoved into her bra just as someone burst through the door.

"Good afternoon, Miss Stark." A tall young man in a specialist agent uniform came in surrounded by other agents with weapons of sorts. He was very handsome, with dark hair swept to the side and bright brown eyes. He looked almost familiar.

_Damn! _Pepper thought.

"Good afternoon, agent whatever your name is."

"You think we're all stupid, don't you?" The agent smirked. "Your a typical Stark, Aspen, egotistical, and genius in all but one thing."

"And what's that?" Aspen said.

"You underestimate everyone else's brain power, and it's your downfall."

_Aspen, do not engage in an insult fight please. We don't want to piss them off more than they already are-_

"Right, well you're-"

"Miss Aspen Victoria Elaina Stark, you're under arrest for breaking and entering and theft." The agent grabbed her hands and cuffed them. She struggled.

"You can't arrest me, asshole, I'm the daughter of Tony Stark! You have no idea what you're dealing with! My father-" He yanked on her arms, hard, causing her to stand still.

"Your father isn't here right now, is he, Aspen?" He breathed, right next to her ear.

"Get off me! How dare you speak about my father that way! How dare you-" Something shot into her thigh, and things began getting blurry. "How... How... dare..." Then everything went black.

* * *

><p><em>Noah Anthony Rogers<em>

"Eric..." Noah grinned, holding out his hands, "Eric, you need to calm down. Please. You're going to hurt someone." The Hulk stood still, towering above Agent Grant Ward.

"Oh my god." Director Ward's eyes were wide in horror, but also awe. "He's... he's like his father..."

"YOU'RE PUNY." Eric snapped. "HULK SMASH."

"NO! ERIC!" Noah jumped in front of his friend.

"GET OUT OF WAY, NOAH!" The Hulk grabbed Noah and pulled him out of the way. "PUNY MAN NOT HURT MY SISTER."

"You... you're speaking in first person..." Skye breathed.

"ERIC! NO! PLEASE! WAKE UP! You need to control it!" Noah shouted. Eric hesitated. "Eric, listen to me! I know you're there. You can't just kill someone because you're angry. The Eric I know knows that!" Grant Ward was backed up against a wall. Eric had his fist raised over him. "Please, Eric. Alexei is rescuing our sisters right now! They're going to be fine."

"PUNY MAN! YOU TOUCH MY SISTER, I SMASH? DEAL?"

"Deal? Uh... Yes, I won't touch your sister."

"GOOD."

"Alright, Eric, can you put me dow-"

"STEP AWAY FROM THE MAN!" A large group of agents came storming in from the hallway.

"NO!" Noah cried.

"HULK, STEP AWAY FROM THE MAN OR WE WILL FIRE!"

"GET AWAY!" The Hulk, or Eric, or whatever he was swung his hand in a fit of rage throwing the men with guns down to the ground and shattering windows.

"ERIC!" Noah screamed.

"DON'T TOUCH MY FRIENDS!"

"ERIC! YOU NEED TO CALM DOWN! ERIC! PLEASE!" Noah screamed.

_Guys! We just got arrested. _

_Well, we're not doing so well over here! _Noah thought. Suddenly there was a sound of a dozen guns firing off. Noah turned to see a group of feathered tranquilizers sticking out of the Hulk's neck. Then looked down at his arm, where there was another.

_Damn. _He thought, grabbing the feathers and ripping it off. Then the Hulk swayed.

"Eric! If you fall on me... I... I... swear..." And he was out.

* * *

><p><strong>And so things go totally wrong... Of course. :P<strong>


	12. Chapter 10 Forced Alliance

**Sorry I haven't posted anything in a while. My computer's having charging trouble, but I think I've got it all worked out. So here's chapter ten! :D**

**-randomblueboots**

* * *

><p><em>Aspen Victoria Elaina Stark<em>

She woke up to groans of her companions, and slowly sat up. They were in some sort of holding cell. Well, not all of them, Eric was no where to be seen, and they seemed to be split into two groups—the ones who had come with a plan, and the ones who hadn't.

"HEY!" She heard Elsa Jean scream on the other side of the wall. "HEY! Where's my brother?"

"You have the right to remain silent, pretty girl, how about you use it?" One of the guards snapped.

"ERIC! ERIC!" Elsa Jean cried.

"Elsie, shut up." Alexei groaned.

"NO! Not until I know he's alright. ERI-"

"Well, if it weren't for you we wouldn't be in this mess!" Pepper screamed. "We had it handled!"

"Essie's right." Noah sighed. "What did you think you would accomplish?"

"We thought we could help, Noah!" Kate's face appeared at the barred window in the wall that separated their two cells. She must have been standing on the cot to reach it. "You made a stupid-ass decision in not telling us what you were doing!"

"Yeah, we want to help find mom and dad too!" Irina shouted.

"It's not safe, Irina." Alexei said.

"When was it supposed to be safe?! When did I ever think that it would be safe?" Irina snapped. "I just want to help find mom and dad."

"Right now, I would feel a lot better if I knew where Eric was." Elsa Jean frowned. "Hey, you! I'm not going to shut up until you tell me where my brother is! ERIC! ERIC! ERI-"

"Your brother is fine, Miss Banner." Director Ward stepped into the room with their two cells.

"You!" Aspen scrambled up and jumped at the bars, "You'll pay for this! You have no idea who you're dealing with."

"Please, don't even use that on me. I know who you are, Miss Stark, and I know you were attempting to steal confidential information.

"How is it confidential?" Noah stood up as well. "That's my father and mother out there. They could be dead, and you're keeping secrets?"

"It's our duty as an organization-"

"Oh fuck the organization!" Alexei snapped, "Screw you, I quit."

"You can't quit, Mr. Romanoff-Barton, because I already fired you."

"Yeah well I quit before that then."

"Tsk! I'm not playing any of these childish games with you. Your parents are in good hands, there's no need to make a situation worse by breaking into the government agency that's trying to find them."

"Well, great job to all of you, because it's been a week and a half and you're still not any closer to finding my father!" Aspen shouted.

"Miss Stark, have you ever considered that perhaps if you'd keep your hands to yourself and mind your own business we'd be able to move faster?"

"THIS IS MY BUSINESS, YOU LITTLE BITCH!" Aspen dove forward.

"Woah! Woah!" Alexei and Noah both jumped forward and grabbed her as she clawed at "director" Ward through the bars.

"Settle down, princess." The tall man who arrested her showed up behind Skye and she instantly saw the resemblance, though he looked more like his father than anything.

"Get away from here, asshole, before I rip your throat out." Aspen hissed.

_Aspen! _Essie gasped.

_Leave me alone, Essie. I will not be held by these bars. I need to work on finding dad, not being stuck in here. And these stupid secret-keepers need to see that. _

_Aspen..._

The man growled and advanced forward with his taser but his mother held out her arm. "Adrian, stop. I'm done with unnecessary violence. You two, take Miss Banner to the same containment as her brother. The rest of you will wait here until we decide whether or not we will punish you." Director Skye and the others marched away.

"You can't keep me in here! I'm Aspen Stark! _Aspen Stark! _Do you know what that name means?"

"Do you even know what that name means?" Noah asked as he sunk back into sitting position.

"It means genius power."

"You're wrong, Aspen. To each person it means something different, depending on what you are to them." Noah said. "To me Aspen Stark is a name that means friend, to them it's just a name that means spoiled brat and coward. You need to prove them wrong. We all do. Were not spoiled kids."

"Some of us are." Irina mumbled.

"Do you want another punch, girl? Because you're asking for it."

"Aspen!" Essie hissed.

"Okay, granted some of us might be, but that's not the point. The point is that we can prove to them that we're not only that. We're courageous, strong, and our experiences define us. Lastly..."

"We'll do anything to save our parents." Aspen breathed.

"We'll do anything to make sure that whoever took them and destroyed our home will face justice." Katie whispered.

"And as for anyone who died, every living thing that suffered..." Alexei said.

"And every thing that was destroyed that once belonged to us..." Irina said.

"We'll avenge them." Pepper finished.

* * *

><p><em>Eric Matthew Banner<em>

"Eric?"

"Elsa? Elsa!"

"Here's your brother. Now feel free to shut up." The guard shut the door behind Elsa Jean, who ran into her brother's arms.

"Are you okay? Are you hurt?"

"No, I'm fine." Eric shook his head. "What about you?"

"I'm good. They're just holding us for questioning. They're deciding what our punishments will be, or something equally annoying." Elsa Jean sighed. Eric chuckled. Together they sat down on the floor of the see-through bowl. "What is this place? A fishbowl?"

"No. It's worse. It's the place where they put monsters." Eric sighed. "They put dad here, which was stupid. Dad could control his powers. I have the right to be here because I can't."

"Neither of us can control our powers." Elsa Jean leaned her head against his shoulder. "That's the hard thing about gamma radiation."

"So." Eric grinned, remembering. "Gamma radiation, baby sister?"

"Seems like it."

"How do you do it? Harness the radiation and form it into a form of pure energy?"

"I couldn't tell you. I have no idea. Like I said, totally accidental and also uncontrolled. I just suddenly felt very angry that they tased Kate."

"Understandable."

"But, you Eric, you're the hulk!"

"I told you."

"I know, but it seems so..."

"Unbelievable? Dad promised he'd help me learn how to control it. Now he's gone."

"I'm sorry." Elsa Jean smiled. "We'll find them. I know we can."

"That's what we're hoping." Eric sighed.

* * *

><p><em>Noah Anthony Rogers<em>

"I hope James and Josh are okay home alone." Katie whispered from the other side of the wall.

"I'm sure they'll be fine." Aspen murmured. "More fine than we are. I'm more concerned about us getting out of here."

"I wouldn't be concerned about James and Josh's safety. I'd be more concerned about the safety of our things and the place we're living. I don't really want that to burn down as well." Noah groaned.

"Well, I'm sorry." Irina whispered. Alexei looked up when he heard his sister's voice. Noah could also tell that Irina had been crying.

"Irina, it's fine." He said. "We'll be getting out soon."

"It's not fine!" Aspen hissed. "We've been here all night! I'm sick and tired of being locked in this stupid cage and it's all your fault!"

"I said I'm sorry, isn't that enough?" Irina gasped.

"Yeah, okay. We're both sorry." Katie moaned. Noah sighed.

"It's fine, both of you. We'll get out." He said. Aspen huffed and looked away from Noah, Alexei, and Pepper. The door opened at the end of the hall and one man came marching in: Adrian Ward from before.

"Good morning." He said. He seemed to have a nicer sort of look about him today.

"Hardly." Aspen snarled.

"Aspen." Noah frowned. He stood and came over to where Adrian was standing.

"I'm here to get you all out. You're free to go with a warning because we know you're concerned about your parents." He smiled, looked down at his watch and seemed to be counting down under his breath. The moment he mouthed zero he looked up. "Alright, we can talk freely now. I'm here to offer my help. I think we'll be able to find your parents faster if we work together outside of SHIELD."

"Umm... No." Aspen snapped. "There's no way I'm working with you."

"Aspen!" Pepper gasped, "Really?"

"A grudge... how typical of a Stark." Adrian rolled his eyes. Aspen was obviously seething. She had that crazy look in her eyes that Noah knew so well.

"What do you know about my family?" She snapped.

"Enough to know you're all arrogant bastards." He replied coolly. _Oh he just hit the jackpot. _

"You know what? You're just proving to me exactly how little I really want to work with you." She smiled. "So, yeah, no thanks."

"Stark, you have absolutely got to admit that I'm the only one who can help you fix this mess."

"Right. Of course you are, because we haven't already been released and pardoned by your parents."

"Oh Miss Aspen Victoria Elaina..." Adrian sighed, "How are you ever going to find your parents without a lead?"

"What are you talking about? I have a lead-" Aspen touched her bra and then looked up at him, shooting daggers with her eyes. "You son of a bitch! I aught to have you fucking arrested for misconduct!" She jumped up from where she sat and rushed to the bars.

"I was just retrieving evidence." He grinned, holding up a thumb drive. Noah groaned.

"Give that back!" She gasped.

"No. If you're not going to accept my offer than there's no reason for you to have this. In fact, it's illegal for you to have this."

"So basically you're saying either work outside the law with me or don't work outside the law at all." Noah frowned.

"Exactly. If you're not going to let me work with you than I reside by the law and you don't get this illegal copy of security footage evidence." He grinned.

"Good move, agent..." Katie whispered. "Good move." Alexei was nodding.

"That is pretty good." He grinned. But Aspen was furious.

"I am going to KILL YOU!" She screamed, gripping the bars tightly.

"Relax, Aspen." Pepper sighed.

"You have yourself a deal, Agent Ward." Noah said, holding out his hand through the bars.

"NO! No you do not! I refuse to work with this... this..."

"This what? Say whatever you're trying to, princess." Adrian grinned.

"I AM NOT A PRINCESS!" Aspen screamed.

"'...This I am not a princess.' Alright I'll take it, fair enough." Adrian nodded. Aspen screamed.

"You." Alexei grinned. "I like you."

"Thanks. Deal or no deal, Captain?"

"Well, I'm not exactly a captain-"

"No fucking deal!" Aspen gritted her teeth. Pepper shook her head. Alexei nodded.

"Deal!" Irina shouted from the other cell, and it made up Noah's mind completely.

"Deal!" He shook Adrian's hand.

"Alright, people." Adrian tossed the thumb drive to Aspen, who caught it, but didn't look too happy at all. "I have a team who will be working with us. Right now they're helping me block the video feed so no one else sees this conversation. The moment I tell them too the videos will return to normal and we'll be on our way."

"How come no one is noticing that the videos are messed up and SHIELD isn't freaking out?" Katie asked.

"A question for another time. We are live in three... two... one... Alright. I'm going to let you all out, but be warned: if you make another mess you've lost your chance."

"Yes, sir." Noah nodded.

"Good." Adrian unlocked their cell doors. "Follow me. I'll take you up to the street level." Adrian led them to an elevator and they went up three stories before reaching street level. There they were greeted by Skye and Grant Ward, Adrian's parents. Eric and Elsa Jean were also there, looking rather confused.

"Thank you, Adrian." Skye smiled. Adrian shrugged and winked at Aspen who glared in return. He mouthed 'princess' and she mouthed something that Noah was sure was not very pleasant. "We've decided, as I'm sure Adrian has informed you, that you're not to be punished- though you really deserve to be punished. We know you're just concerned for your parents. I completely understand. So please, go home, and don't meddle in SHIELD business again. Like we said, your parents are in good hands. We will find them."

"Thank you. That is very generous." Noah nodded and then shook hands with both Director Ward and her husband.

"See you later!" Adrian called as they finally left SHIELD headquarters.

"Yeah, no thanks!" Aspen shouted back.

* * *

><p><em>Aspen Victoria Elaina Stark<em>

"Find anything yet?" Kate asked. She had her blond curls pulled back into a messy bun.

"No... There's so much security footage. I programmed Jarvis to sort through it while I work on this." She gestured to the IronMaid suit. "Dad wasn't quite done with fixing the thrusters, but I'm working on it, and after I'm done with that I'm going to make my own sort of arc reactor."

"Why exactly would you want an arc reactor?"

"Dad has to change his arc reactor out once and a while, right? They're not everlasting. They wear down, or run out of power, or break down or whatever. This one is pretty old. I'm going to need a new one otherwise..."

"You'll be in the air one day and suddenly running on fumes so to speak. It's Stark's clean energy, not everlasting energy. Though it does last for a lot longer than any other energy source we have on this planet. Am I right?" A shorter young man with curling light brown hair and a big smile stood in the doorway. He was fit, but on the leaner side. He looked rather clumsy. His deep blue eyes were full of excitement.

"Yes. That's exactly right." Aspen grinned. "Who are you?"

"Oh, I'm sorry. That was quite rude of me." It was then Aspen noticed his accent. He pulled his hands out of his pockets and dashed towards her, and held out his hand. "I'm Agent Cedric Fitz."

"Cedric. Nice to meet you." Aspen shook his hand. "I'm Aspen Stark."

"I know who you are."

"This is my friend, Kathryn Rogers."

"I know who you are too." Cedric shook her hand as well. "I'm here to work on the problem of the missing parents." He chuckled.

"Wait... don't tell me..." Aspen frowned.

"Oh no!" Kate groaned.

"Adrian Ward sent you."

"Actually yes. Adrian's like a brother to me." Cedric nodded. "We all sort of formed a tight group when we all joined SHIELD after academy."

"We?" Kate asked.

"Well, there's me, my sister Anna, Adrian, and Adrian's brother Nate."

"Oh great. There's more of them." Aspen sighed.

_Aspen. You're being extremely rude to our guest. _

_You're not even in the room. You're not supposed to be a part of this conversation. _Aspen thought.

_Stop being a child and be considerate of other people's feelings. _

_I don't know who your real parents were but they must have been extremely nice._

_Oh yes, very nice, to sell their baby girl to HYDRA. They must have been incredibly kind people. _

_I sense sarcasm. _

"Anyways, I'm here to help. What can I do?"

"You know... maybe Adrian Ward isn't so bad a person after all. I could definitely use an extra pair of hands that actually know what they're doing." Aspen smiled. "How about you try and help me make sense of my father's blueprints. Because they suck."

"Sounds like a plan." Cedric said. "When do we start?"

"How about now?" Aspen asked.

"Alright. Sounds good to me."

* * *

><p><em>Noah Anthony Rogers<em>

"Yesterday you were pulling that bow back like a pro." Noah crossed his arms and leaned against the wall.

"Practice makes perfect, but there's always room for perfection." Irina said, pulling back the arrow she had just knocked on her father's forty pound bow. "I find that those two things go hand and hand very well."

"I agree." Noah nodded. There was a long silence as he watched Irina fire a few more arrows at moving targets. Her aim was nearly perfect. Her father would be proud. Then Irina sighed, set down the bow and turned to face her friend.

"Noah, about... the other day..."

"When you attacked SHIELD?" Noah asked.

"No... I mean... when I got in a fight with Aspen and said you'd never be my family, or something equally stupid." Irina whispered.

"Oh, Irina, it was just a mistake. We can forget about it." He stood up, so he was no longer leaning against the wall.

"No, we can't. We can't because I can't. I have to apologize. I'm sorry. You're one of my best friends, Noah. You always have been."

"Irina..." Noah smiled, taking her hand in his. "It's fine! It was a silly thing said in anger. It doesn't bother me."

"It didn't at all? Are you sure?"

"Well, it did a little. But it's done, it's over. It's fine." Noah shook his head.

"I'm glad! I'm so sorry. It was stupid."

"It's fine." Noah grinned. "We're fine."

"Alright! Good!" He stared down into her forest green eyes, and for the first time he noticed that there was a darker ring of green around her irises and around the pupil, and what seemed like little flecks of gold, which made them sparkle. They were beautiful. And then he came to the realization that they were still holding hands and he cleared his throat and quickly looked away. Irina let her hand slip away from his, her cheeks turning a bright red.

"So, how have your practices with Katie been going?" She asked, picking up her bow quickly, not daring to look into his eyes again. Noah leaned against the wall again, crossing his arms.

"We've gotten pretty good at passing that shield around. We've been using some of Jarvis' training programs to work together. It's pretty cool. You should come sometime and we can all train together."

"Will do." She fired, the arrow hitting the exact middle of the target. She wiped away sweat from her forehead and turned, grinning, setting her bow against the wall she yanked her thick red curls out of their ponytail and let them cascade around her shoulders.

"So..." Noah frowned, trying to concentrate.

"So..." Irina smiled, and leaned against the wall with him. "Elsa Jean and Eric have gamma radiation in their cells?"

"Looks that way." Noah nodded.

"What are we going to do about it?"

"What...? We don't need to do anything. Elsa Jean and Eric can take care of themselves. Besides... we have more important things to worry about."

"Like whether or not Aspen is going to kill herself to find her father."

"Don't get me wrong, I'd love to help find my dad too, but it's getting to be a little crazy of an obsession."

"You're right. But we've got a team from SHIELD helping us now." Irina said. Noah looked down and studied her. She seemed confident. Like she knew their parents were in trouble, but she didn't care, she would find them and save them. Nothing could stop her.

"Hey, guys!" Kate rushed in. "Adrian Ward is finally here! He wants to talk to us all!"

"Alright. Coming." Irina followed Kate and Noah followed her out. Kate was wearing the suit she had worn when they attacked SHIELD, like her fathers. Noah had never actually asked her where she'd gotten it.

"Where'd you get that suit, Kitty?" He asked.

"I made it. I mean, not really. I fixed up one of dad's old ones. It's pretty neat, don't you think? I just brought it in in certain places. Made it fit for someone more my size."

"Why?" Katie stopped, her cheeks red.

"Would it be crazy if I said I always had dreams of fighting like dad? As... as a Captain America." Kate said. Noah grinned.

"Katie, you and I, we have the same dream."

"Really?" Katie smiled brightly.

"But you're not much of a fighter. You always hated fighting. You were the peace-keeper."

"That's why I'm not a leader, Noah." She said. "You lead the fight, I keep us united."

"My sister keeper of union between peace and the nations."

"Union." She smiled. "I like that."

* * *

><p><em>Eric Matthew Banner<em>

Aspen was getting more and more frustrated by the minute, and Eric saw it. He had anger issues, but Aspen was furious. Though she fixed the thrusters on her suit, and was slowly able to figure out her father's blueprints for a new arc reactor, she was unable to find anything on the footage, or at least, Jarvis wasn't able to.

Now Eric watched as she talked to Cedric Fitz on the other side of the room. He was a rather handsome young man. He must have been about nineteen, but he seemed incredibly smart. Probably, almost as smart as Aspen, which Eric knew would eventually bother her. Especially since he was almost ten years younger than she was.

"So, hello everyone." Adrian stood at the front of the room. He was not even a year younger than Aspen, and she still hated him. Eric could almost see the fury in her eyes when he spoke up. "I know we sort of got off on a bad start the other day, but I'm kind of hoping we can forget about it and move on. I'm Adrian Ward, I'm a specialist Agent and also Chief of Security at SHIELD, which is a very boring job. I'd personally prefer being on field, which is exactly why I'm helping you now. Your parents have been missing for too long. We haven't gotten any sort of ransom note, which is bad. So, of course, we must assume the worst. I figured it would be faster and easier to work outside of SHIELD, so I assembled my team. You've all met Cedric Fitz, who's a biochemist, though he is graced with some tech skills and also is a very fine field agent. This is his sister, Anna Fitz. She's tech and biochemistry, but mostly on the tech side. Anna's great. You'll like her, Aspen."

"Don't tell me what I'll like and not like." Aspen mumbled. Pepper shot her a glare and Eric grinned. Anna Fitz was a pretty young woman with light brown hair and bright, gray eyes.

"Hello!" She had the same accent as her brother and seemed quite excited. "It's so good to meet you all, truly."

"And lastly, this is my little brother: Nate." Adrian put his arm around a young man who was no doubt his younger brother. They had their father's looks for sure. Nate was a handsome young man with light brown hair and brown eyes. He must have been a few years younger than his brother, but he seemed very mature. He was dressed in a SHIELD issued uniform, and looked very serious. "Nate's an ambassador."

"Please, I am not an ambassador, I'm a SHIELD agent and my specialty is negotiation."

"And linguistics." Adrian said.

"And linguistics." Nate nodded. "But anyways, I'm glad you all let us come help work with you."

"Of course."

"So, Aspen." Adrian addressed the oldest of their group. "Have you found anything on those security camera videos?" Aspen glared.

"No. Nothing." She shook her head. "It's like they were all there one second and then gone."

"I can take a look too, if you'd like." Anna said. "It might be good for a fresh start." She smiled eagerly.

"Whatever you'd like. I've actually been having Jarvis scan for anything unusual in them." Aspen said, "So far, no luck."

"Well, there's your problem, trusting a machine with a task meant for eyes-"

"What did you just call him?" Aspen looked up at the Adrian Ward with fury in her eyes. _Great. _Eric groaned inwardly. If someone else were to question Jarvis, or refer to him as a machine Aspen would usually just roll her eyes, groan, and then correct the person, while firmly explaining why Jarvis was so much more than that. _"He's highly capable of this task, he's incredibly smart, he's the greatest butler my dad ever invented. He's almost family."_

Noah stood up quickly, "Alright! I think we're done here. Aspen come on."

"No. You do not- Jarvis is not a machine."

"You're being really immature, Aspen." Noah said.

"No. I will not let him... Get off me, Noah! I won't be treated like a child!"

"Then start acting like an adult!" Noah shouted. "Our parents are missing and you can only sit around trying to find fault in the very people who are trying to help us." Eric watched in awe as Aspen stood, shaking in anger. If she had cells full of gamma radiation, Eric was sure she'd be turning into the hulk by now.

"You think I don't care about this. Don't you? You think I only care about myself." She had tears filling her light green/gray eyes and she wiped them away. "I'm not as selfish as you think!" She stormed from the room, up the stairs and out the front door into the woods.

"Oh dear." Eric mumbled.

"Look what you did!" Pepper cried.

"Noah didn't do anything!" Kate gasped.

"You don't understand!" Pepper groaned. "Don't you see that everyone works a different way? The way Aspen works is that she pushes aside her feelings of hurt and sadness and focuses on other trivial things, emphasizing them instead of what's hurting her."

"So what are you now?" Alexei glared. "A psychiatrist?" Suddenly a blur of red and gold flew past them and out the front door.

"Was that-?" Cedric began.

"Oh no... she made the bracelets..." Elsa jean groaned.

"Where's she going?" Noah looked over at Pepper. Eric watched as Pepper's expression changed from concentration to pure horror.

"She's blocking me out! She's never done that before!"

"This is all your fault." Kate snapped at Adrian.

"How is this my fault?! I'm trying to help!"

"Enough! All of you!" Noah gasped. "Aspen's going to be fine. She just needs to cool off. She'll be back soon enough."


	13. Chapter 11 Searching for Help

_Eric Matthew Banner_

"Eric!" Kate stood in his doorway with a look of worry in her eyes. "Elsa Jean hurt herself. We need you to take a look at it!"

"What?! What's wrong?" Eric jumped off his bed.

"She fell on her arm weird. Come see." Eric had been working his way through med school before this disaster. Until they found their parents he wouldn't be going back, but if Elsa Jean had hurt herself he could certainly help, even if it was just to discover what the exact problem was. Kate led him into the kitchen, and the moment he turned the corner into the small room the chanting of "Happy Birthday" began.

_It's my birthday! _He grinned. He had totally forgotten. Elsa Jean was perfectly fine, holding up a small cake with five old-looking birthday candles in it. Everyone was gathered around her, except for Aspen, who was still missing. But despite being worried, even Pepper was there, singing along with the rest of Eric's friends.

"Happy birthday to you! Happy Birthday to you! Happy birthday to Eric! Happy birthday to you!"

"Make a wish!" Elsa Jean cried. Eric closed his eyes.

_Please, please, let mom and dad be alright. _He thought. And then he blew out the candles.

"Yay!" Katie clapped her hands. The twins danced around their older brother.

"Twenty-two years old today!" Noah grinned, applauding his friend.

"Twenty-two years ago." Everyone settled down listening to Pepper muse. "What was happening twenty-two years ago?" She smiled.

"The Avengers defeated HYDRA at last, twenty-two years ago." Alexei said. "I was born twenty-two years ago."

"Yeah, but in May." Irina said.

"Dad and mom got married twenty-two years ago." Noah said.

"God, has it really been that long?" Eric frowned.

"What else?"

"Niel turned one."

"Aspen turned six."

"I turned three." Pepper whispered.

"The rest of us weren't even thought of." Katie grinned.

"When were we thought of?" Josh asked.

"You weren't thought of until Kate was four. And then you weren't really thought of as two little ones until a little later on." Noah smiled.

"You were surprises for sure." Kate said. "I don't think mom and dad thought about having a third kid, let alone four."

"I think dad loved the idea of having more than two kids. Mom wasn't so hot on the pregnancy thing." Noah said. "When she found out she was having twins she nearly freaked."

"If you want to talk about surprises lets talk about Eric. That story's funny." Elsa Jean grinned.

"Why? Because Danny was the only planned baby?" Eric snapped.

"No. Because you were the baby no one ever thought would happen. Especially not dad." Elsa Jean said.

"You did really surprise him." Alexei nodded.

"Uncle Tony used to say that Uncle Bruce used to say that he would never become a father because he was a monster." Noah nodded.

"Never?" Pepper laughed out loud. "The man has three children now."

"Well..." Elsa Jean sighed. "Two..."

"We don't know what Danny's doing." Eric said, "He's probably fine, and he just doesn't know mom and dad are in trouble, that's all. Otherwise, he'd be here."

"You know what, I have an idea." Alexei said, after thinking over a bite of cake. "How about I find Daniel?"

"You?" Irina frowned, "SHIELD can't even find Danny Banner, how do you think you'll be able to find him?"

"I'm Alexei Clintovich, son of Natasha Romanoff and Clint Barton. How do you think? I was raised by spies."

"And...?"

"By maybe doing a few illegal things... but I can guarantee that I'll find him."

"I would really like it if you would!" Elsa Jean whispered. "I miss Danny so much!" Eric frowned.

"Are you sure that's wise? We might find out things we don't like, baby sis."

"I'd rather know than live in the dark. Besides, if he's fine, he might come back. Please, Alexei, if you would, I would love you forever."

"I need no convincing." Alexei grinned. "I'll leave tomorrow. I will find him."

"Thank you so much, that's the best birthday present you could give to me, Alyosha." Eric smiled.

* * *

><p><em>Aspen Victoria Elaina Stark<em>

She was free at last, just like in her dreams, and just like when her father first presented her with this gift, except this time there was no falling. IronMaid Mark 1 was perfect. She flew it with ease over New York City and wasn't even sure where she was going until she was flying out of state towards Chicago. Adrian Ward was right, they needed help, but certainly not from him.

She stopped only a few times, once when she thought she might need to fix the arc reactor, (but it only turned out to be a screen malfunction which she fixed easily), and another time when she needed to sleep. Soon she had reached Chicago, and after that she flew to the large city of Nortonville, which was certainly smaller than Chicago, but still rather large. She knew just where to go, though she had only been there once when she was in her early teens.

Just outside of Nortonville, farther into the country was the Barnes Manor. She was headed there to see if the Winter Soldier had disappeared just like the other Avengers. Surely someone would have noticed. Yes, of course, someone would have noticed. The papers here would be talking about it just as much as they were talking about the disappearance of the Avengers. Mr. Barnes was the "long-lost nephew" of Angelica Barnes, and had inherited all her fortunes. He was rather popular in Nortonville for being a kind man, who gave to charities and continued to add to his wealth by working with Stark Industries on developing new weapons and tech. Though, he himself was never really involved in the inventing process, he was very bright and had come up with numerous ideas. If he had vanished, they would know. So Aspen hoped to find help here. She landed on the laws in front of the house, just inside the old gate with BARNES written across it in huge letters. For a moment everything was silent and then an older woman with graying hair and bright blue eyes came around the corner.

"Tony? No..." She frowned when she saw Aspen, and then shook her head. "Who are you? Speak up quickly, or you won't be so lucky going out as you were getting in." Aspen grinned, flipped open her face plate and the tall woman heaved a sigh of relief.

"It's me, Quincy." Aspen said.

"Aspen. You scared me. We can't be too careful. Someone obviously has a grudge. Hold on. James! James!"

"What's going on- Aspen?" A tall older man came around the corner. He frowned when he saw Aspen. Then crossed his arms, one metal and one flesh and blood. "What are you doing here?"

"I came to talk to you. I need your help." Aspen whispered, feeling tears sting at the back of her eyes. "Can we go inside?" Quincy seemed to almost feel Aspen's pain.

"Of course, dear." Quincy and James led Aspen into the manor, down the hallway, past the landing and into the kitchen, where a beautiful young woman was sitting on the counter with her legs dangling down and sipping on tea with one hand and the other gripped some sort of baton tightly.

"Hey. Get off the counter." James demanded when he saw her. She rolled her eyes, but jumped down anyways, spilling a little tea on her black tanktop. She sighed, set her mug down, and looked over Aspen, and her suit with a frown.

"Who's this? Irongirl?"

"Naomi." Quincy shook her head, "Be nice. This is Aspen."

"Oh." Naomi was fit, with short cut dark brown hair that only went down to her chin. She had gray-blue eyes, like her father, and her mother's smile. Aspen hadn't seen Naomi since the dark haired woman was a tiny little girl, probably only two or three, and her younger brother was just a baby. What she did remember was Uncle Steve's thankfulness for Quincy Thorn, and her gentle calming manner towards his best friend. Perhaps they would never know what really happened between the two to sort them out into love, but Aspen knew that Quincy Thorn was the cure for James' nightmares and pains.

"Aspen Stark." Aspen held out her iron-clad hand.

"Umm..." Naomi took it and shook it firmly, and Aspen laughed.

"Sorry, I'll get this thing off." The mark one removed itself from her body and positioned in the center of the room. Quincy Barnes began making tea, her daughter crossed her arms and leaned against the wall. James swiped stray strands of hair away from his eyes and then asked,

"What's going on, Aspen?"

"I think you know what's going on." Aspen frowned.

"The disappearance of your father and the other avengers." Quincy nodded.

"So neither of you have been threatened or anything?"

"No." James shook his head. "But we haven't exactly been working... on..."

"We haven't been fighting crime as the Winter Soldier and Raven anymore." Quincy said.

"Like your parents we've sort of retired."

"But what makes you different from them then? Why them and not you?" Aspen asked.

"The only thing I ever worked on with your parents was the HYDRA case." James said. "And then we separated. Perhaps someone had a grudge on just the Avengers." Aspen mulled over this while Quincy poured tea, and then shook her head.

"Whatever the case you have to help me."

"Help you?" Naomi asked.

"How?" A teenage boy stood in the doorway, with dark hair and blue eyes like his sister. He was strong, good looking, and was wearing all black, with a dark face mask hanging around his neck that Aspen knew would cover his face from his nose down.

"I... I don't know." She said, "I was just hoping that maybe-"

"Of course we'll help," Quincy said, "What do you need?"

"I..." Aspen felt the tears once again, and her throat hurt. She look over to where the two younger people stood. Naomi and Alexander. "I need my dad." She whispered.

"Oh, Aspen, all of you need your parents." Quincy reached forward and hugged Aspen tightly. "Why don't you stay here tonight and tomorrow we'll talk about it?"

"Alright."

"Naomi, will you find Aspen a room?" Quincy asked.

"Sure." Naomi shrugged.

"Thank you." Aspen breathed.

* * *

><p><em>Alexei Andrew Romanoff-Barton<em>

_So, this is where you've been sneaking around? _Alexei looked up at the dirty apartment building. And came to the front door. There were bars across the door which was certainly a bad sign. _Do they lock this up at night? _Alexei frowned. He knew he was in the bad part of town, but he didn't know it was that bad. He looked down at the address that Old-Jensen had given him.

_"__Sure, I've seen that kid." The old man had said._ _"He's been around." _

_"__What's he been doing?" Alexei asked. _

_"__Mm... Not so sure... It might come back to me for a price..." Jensen gave Alexei a grin and Alexei sighed. The old man laughed, revealing his missing teeth and Alexei shied away from his rank breath, but handed the old man a ten dollar bill anyways. _

_"__I hear the kid's doing business with not-so-pleasant people. He's got family issues, or something."_

_"__Family issues?" Alexei mused. "Where can I find him?" _

_"__Don't know if I can remember that one...I mean, I could maybe have my memory jogged if-" Alexei grabbed the old man's jacket. _

_"__Listen here, how about I call the cops and let them know what you've been up to, old man? Will that jog your memory?"_

_"__Alright! Alright! I hear that he's been hiding out at John Morten's place." _

_"__John Morten? The thief?"_

_"__Yeah. They get along really well." _

_"__Where is that?" _

_"__Castor Street. Hill Apartment Building. Apartment 2B."_

_"__You know an awful lot about John Morten, Jensen." Alexei said as he let go of him. _

_"__What can I say?" Jensen shrugged. "I get around. I know things. That's why you came to me, isn't it?" _

_"__Sure." Alexei grinned. "See you around."_

_"__Hey, hey. You ain't gonna go tell on me, now are you?" Jensen gave him his ugly grin again. _

_"__No. Not this time." Alexei frowned, "But you better watch it, Jensen. If I catch you doing something stupid I am going to tell." _

_"__Whatever you say, Barton." _

Alexei knelt down in front of the apartment building's double doors and pulled his pick-lock kit out from his trench coat's inside pocket. He carefully flipped open the little pocket book and pulled out a couple of the small tools. _This should be easy. _He grinned carefully beginning to work on his task when he felt footsteps coming towards him. Before he could react a deep voice snapped,

"Looking for trouble, tick?" He slowly stood, pocketing his kit as he did so and shaking his head.

"Tick?"

"Yeah, I know your type. You're a bloodsucking little thing, like to steal off of the better-off for your own salvation. You ain't gonna find anything in there, tick. Can't you see this apartment building is built for your type?"

"Ah. But if I am a thief than I would know that it's just a ploy. Johnny Morten doesn't waste his wealth on trivial things such as good housing. He's too careful. They'd catch him. Wouldn't they?" Alexei spun around to face the thief. He was a tall dark haired man who grinned when he saw Alexei.

"So, you're not a thief than. You a cop?"

"No. I'm looking for my friend. Daniel Banner. I heard from someone that Morten knows him, might even be sheltering him. I'm here to take him home."

"Don't know no Daniel Banner. And I don't know nothin' about Johnny Morten." The man shrugged. Alexei sighed and shook his head.

"Think a little bit harder, or I might have to jog your memory. I know that you belong to this apartment. I know you work for Johnny Morten, and if you tell me what you know about Daniel Banner, I'll be less inclined to report you." Alexei pulled out his old SHIELD badge.

"SHIELD?!" The young man frowned. "What's SHIELD got to do with Morten's business?"

"Just tell me what you know." Alexei growled, raising his fist.

"Alright, alright. I know Johnny Morten lives up there, but he's not home. He and that stupid kid of his went off to do some work. Some good tricky stuff. It's all extremely dangerous apparently because he ain't taking me, just the "expert", that dumb-ass kid. I'll strangle him, I will."

"What kid?" Alexei frowned, "Is this him?" He held out a picture of Daniel.

"Yeah! That's him!"

"Daniel Banner. You do know him."

"I know that kid, but he ain't going around calling himself Daniel Banner. His name's Danny, but we all call him Greene, with an e. Danny Greene." The word "Green" sent shivers up Alexei's spine.

"Why do you call him that?"

"There's something he can do... he can break into banks without anyone so much as seeing anything but a green blur. He's a legend around here."

"Alright, that's fine." Alexei frowned, trying to figure out what it all meant. "Can you get me in?"

"I told you, _tick_, they ain't in there."

"Doesn't matter. There might be a clue as to where they went. I need to find Danny."

"Suit yourself. So long as I'm pardoned I don't care where I take you."

"You're not being pardoned, I'm just electing to ignore your crimes _for now._" Alexei emphasized.

"Right, right." The tall man pulled out a key and unlocked the door. "The name's Clayton. What's your's?"

"Jameson." Alexei lied.

"Pleasure. And if you tell me what you're looking for I can sure help you."

"I'm just looking for any clue that my friend was here." Alexei frowned.

"Well, I told you that he's been here, he's just not home. Isn't that enough?"

"If he's not home I need to find out where he's gone." Alexei replied.

"Alright. Morten's apartment is on the second floor." Clayton led Alexei up to a second floor apartment. The building smelled of cigarette's and burn cheese and the halls hadn't been cleaned in who knew how long. Alexei couldn't see Danny living here. Not the Danny he grew up with as a kid. Not Danny Banner.

They came to Morten's door, and Alexei tried the knob, but of course it was locked, and probably bolted shut.

"Stand back." He commanded Clayton.

"You ain't gonna break it down, are you?" Clayton frowned. Alexei shook away any fear of the pain he knew that was come and shot from the other side of the small hallway to the door, where his shoulder made contact with the hard wood. It was a cheap place, so luckily the doors weren't very thick. He burst through, like a knife through butter, but it wasn't without sacrifices.

"Shit." Alexei hissed, gripping his arm tightly. He was an idiot for not remembering his last injury, the one from last summer when he and Agent 15 were on a mission together.

_"__This way!" Emma led the way, dashing from hall to hall, leading them both to safety from the fire that was chasing after them. _

_"__Where are we going?" Alexei called as she grabbed his arm, dragging him along. _

_"__Level 13 has a lab that's basically fireproof. We get in there and we're golden." _

_"__You knew this place was going to blow." Alexei accused her. _

_"__Maybe a little bit." Emma smiled mischievously back at him as they ran. Suddenly from a hallway off to the right a man grabbed Alexei's arm and yanked him away from Emma's grip. The pull was harsh, and strong, and cracked his arm like a whip. A sudden electric pain came down his shoulder and his arm was rendered useless. _

_"__Agent Barton!" Emma cried. She looked over to the agent that stood above them, Agent Kai, SHIELD agent gone rogue. The man they had been hunting. _

The repercussions of using that particular shoulder to break down Morten's door were that Alexei completely re-dislocated his shoulder. He gritted his teeth to the pain and looked around him at the apartment. It was just a three room apartment, meaning literally three rooms: living room/kitchen, one bedroom, and one bathroom, and it was probably the most disgusting apartment that Alexei had ever stepped foot into.

_Danny lives here?! _There were dirty dishes everywhere, old pizza boxes with moldy pizza, stains from numerous spills littered the floor, walls, and somehow even the ceiling. Though for some darker stains Alexei had to question whether or not they were anything but blood. Soda and beer cans were trashed in piles here and there across the room. In one corner was a huge pile of dirty laundry. Flies buzzed across the room, especially near and on the small bowl of rotting fruit on the dirty counter.

"This is disgu-" Alexei paused and turned towards the TV.

_"__Though Stark Industries continues it's operation, the man himself is still missing, leaving his eldest daughter—Aspen Stark—in charge of the business. While the case of the missing Avengers continues without much progress the world moves onto other desperate measures. Coming up: who will take on the mantle of Earth's mightiest heroes?" _

"Why is the TV on?" Alexei glared. _Alexei, think! Someone was here! Someone was here recently! Like... _

CRACK! Something hard swung across his head, leaving the world spinning and blurring and turning dark. Clayton and Johnny Morten leaned over him.

"Sorry, _tick_." Clayton grinned, "It was too easy."

_I'm better than this... better than this... _

"F-f-"

"What's that?" Johnny Morten whispered.

_Fuckin' Clayton. _


	14. Chapter 12 I have no Family

**Sorry about the long wait guys. I don't know if any of you saw the last chapter though. It seems odd no one said anything. Ah well. This one's my favorite so far in terms of introducing new characters and having a new point of view. (We won't be using Adrian's POV so often because... well I suppose you'll just have to wait and see :D) **

**Anyways! **

**Thanks for reading! **

**-randomblueboots**

* * *

><p><em>Adrian Philip Ward<em>

"Ward!" A tall young woman with long blond hair burst into his office.  
>"What?" He snapped. "Haven't you ever heard of knocking?"<br>"Is it true?"  
>"What? Emma, you're going to have to be more specific." Adrian rolled his eyes.<br>"Alexei- I mean, Agent Barton, is he... gone?"  
>"Gone? I don't think<em> Alexei<em> is dead."

"No! Was he really kicked out of SHIELD?"  
>"Yes. I'm pretty sure stealing government property is illegal, Miss Everett."<br>"Agent to you, you little shit." Emma hissed. Adrian stood up angrily,  
>"Watch the way you speak to your superior officers, Everett, or you'll be out of work as well!"<br>"Better me than Alexei Romanoff-Barton. Do you know who his parent's are?!"

"His parents are either kidnapped or dead. I don't think your ancestry really helps you when you're in court for theft and breaking and entering a government organization." Adrian sneered.  
>"Look, Ward. I came here for a purpose. I'd like to... I'd just like to state my opinion, which is that Agent Romanoff-Barton was influenced by strong and uncontrollable emotions caused by rather harsh events within his life. I believe SHIELD code article 10.54 states that in the instance in which an agent acts rashly and against orders or against any codes because of a horrible episode within his life that agent is to be reprimanded, given counseling, and a fair trial. Alexei Romanoff-Barton was given none of this." Emma finished. "If you'd please consider reviewing his case, I'd be extremely grateful." Adrian smirked.<p>

"Oh Emma...Emma... First off, SHIELD code articles are not enforced by me-"  
>"But-"<br>"DO NOT interrupt me, Everett! SHIELD code articles are enforced by the leaders of SHIELD. Secondly, at this moment we don't even know where Agent Romanoff-Barton is. He's disappeared off the map."  
>"Excuse me?" Emma frowned, "How can he have disappeared?"<br>Adrian sighed and sat down, "We were tracking all of the Avengers' children in case whoever caught the Avengers themselves decided to come back for their little ones, but Alexei must have figured it out, because he's missing."

"What do you mean he must have figured it out?! What if the kidnapper did come back? What if his first victim was Alexei?"  
>"Relax. If anyone was smart enough to figure out that we had them under surveillance I'm sure Alexei Barton would be the one." Adrian said. Emma glared down at him.<br>"Then I guess the reason for my visit here has changed, chief of security."  
>"Really, and what would your new reason be?"<br>"I'm here to request a mission, sir." Emma said, "To find Agent RB." Adrian sighed and looked up at Emma, swiping away his dark hair. His eyes glanced back towards the paperwork he was holding, and then back up to her.

"Denied."  
>"What?"<br>"We already have an agent working on finding Alexei, Agent Everett."  
>"You do not. I would have heard something about it." Emma said.<br>"You didn't hear he was missing, how could you have heard about the agents we assigned to the task?" Adrian glared.  
>"Please, sir, I'm begging you, please put me on the team." Emma whispered.<br>"Denied, Agent!" Adrian gasped.

"May I..." Emma looked away dejectedly, "May I request a reason as to why I have been denied my request?"  
>"You're too emotionally attached, Emma." Adrian frowned. She turned towards him quickly.<br>"I am not emotionally attached to this- this-"  
>"Emma." Adrian raised an eyebrow looking up at her. "Don't make me laugh."<br>"I don't think anyone could do that." Emma snapped. "I don't care what you say. I'm going to find Alexei Romanoff-Barton."  
>"Emma! You're going to get yourself killed!" Adrian groaned.<br>"Because that's what friends do, you asshole."

"Emma! You do this you're going against a direct order! That's a SHIELD code article too! That's cause for getting kicked off of the team." Emma stopped at the door and flipped her hair over her shoulder.  
>"You know what? Go to hell, Adrian Philip." And she slammed the door in his face.<p>

* * *

><p><em>Noah Anthony Rogers<em>

The buildings around them shook and another wave came crashing full-force towards them.  
>"Alright, you all got my back?" Elsa Jean grinned.<br>"Always." Eric nodded.  
>"Let's do this." Noah glared over at the aliens surging towards them. "Katie, you and Elsa Jean cover the ground. Irina, you're up high, alright? Take them down from above. Essie, you're the control center, make sure everyone's got their backs covered."<br>"That's a tough job." Pepper frowned, "Focusing on all of you at once."  
>"It's when we need it that counts." Elsa Jean replied.<p>

"Just team up with Eric, take down as many of those aliens as you can with whatever special powers you have."  
>"Do my brain waves work in this computer room?" Essie asked.<br>"My computers are made to sense any abnormal activity coming from anyone, especially in terms of mutant abilities." Jarvis replied.  
>"Okay, and Eric... do what you're good at doing." Noah said. Eric grinned,<br>"Smash?"  
>"Yeah... smash."<br>"What about you?" Katie asked.  
>"I'm covering all bases. I've got to get up high to see what I can see, so I'll go with Irina." Noah frowned.<p>

"Jarvis, Pause." James said. The street froze.  
>"What about us?" Josh asked Noah.<br>"Yeah, how come everyone else gets important jobs?" James frowned,  
>"You know what very important jobs you two have?" Noah asked his younger twin brothers.<br>"What?" James asked.  
>"Civilian control."<br>"What?"  
>"There are people all around, see? They need to get to some place safe and you need to protect them. Can you do that?"<br>"They're not real, they're just simulations." Josh complained.  
>"Pretend they're real. That's the point." Katie said. James sighed.<br>"Okay, fine."  
>"Great, any questions before we press play?" Noah asked.<br>"Do you get the Shield or do I?" Katie asked.  
>"Since you're gonna be on the ground, you better have it for now." Noah nodded.<br>"Alright."

"Jarvis, play." The simulation began again and everyone leaped into action, doing their duties. Noah followed Irina into the skyscraper next to where everyone else stood on the ground. Hopefully the elevators worked in this simulation, though Jarvis was always as lifelike as possible and with the earth tremors they'd been having lately from the arriving alien ships he didn't think the elevators would work. Of course, he had to be right. They ran up flight after flight after flight of stairs while everyone else fought below. He could hear the explosions and hoped no one had "died" yet.  
>Suddenly Irina stumbled. "Ah! My ankle!" She gasped in pain, sitting on the step and pressing her eyes shut tight against tears. Noah sat down next to her and quickly began unlacing her boot.<br>"Can you bend it?" She shook her head, gritting her teeth as he pulled off her black boot to reveal horrible swelling and bruising underneath her sock. "Oh, Irina, you must have sprained it at least."

"What are we going to do now?" Irina asked. Noah wrapped his arm around her shoulder and under her legs and lifted her up.  
>"I'm carrying you to the roof."<br>"There's still fifty floors to go at least!" Irina gasped.  
>"Doesn't matter. We need an archer, and we're getting one."<br>"But-"  
>"No buts. Your ankle may be broken, but it doesn't mean a thing. You can sit and shoot right?"<br>"Sure, but-"  
>"Irina, shush." Noah said and they began climbing once again.<p>

* * *

><p><em>Eric Matthew Banner<em>

_The twins are dead again._ Pepper said in his head.  
>Of course they are. They seem to do nothing but die. He was in a state of a dream world within Hulk's huge body. He watched as his own hands smashed and he crushed aliens beneath his feet, but it was as if he were trapped in water. He couldn't think so clearly, couldn't speak so well. His arms and legs were so big, it was hard to control them. Elsa Jean stood by his side, using her own gamma radiation fueled power which Eric like to call a pulse. She would shout out and out from her chest came a ripple, a pulse of green energy, knocking over dozens of aliens at a time.<br>_Shit, guys. Katie's gone._ Pepper thought.

"They're picking us off one by one." Elsa Jean called.  
>"HULK MAD!" Eric screamed, lunging forward. Suddenly Elsa Jean vanished in a blur, somehow shot in the heart by a laser. Damn. The Hulk roared in absolute fury and stormed through enemy after enemy. Then something hard slammed against his back and his fizzled from existence within that room...<p>

...Eric opened his eyes and he was outside the training room.  
>"Eric, you lasted longer than Kate!" Josh gasped.<br>"So who's left?" Eric asked.  
>"Essie, Noah, and Irina."<br>"There's no way they're going to win this one. We've never been able to beat level 12."  
>"You mean in this one afternoon that we've been playing this?" Elsa Jean asked.<br>"It's hard!" Eric gasped.  
>"We'll see."<p>

* * *

><p><em>Noah Anthony Rogers<em>

"I think it's just us and Essie left." Irina gasped out. Noah grinned when he saw the huge numbers on the side of the wall: 102. They had finally reached the top. He burst out into the sunlight. And hurried to find Irina something to sit on. He found an old crate and carefully set her there. It was at a nice height where her legs were dangling, and her waist was just about where his was. They were about the same height while she sat on the crate. Then they began to fight. Irina fired arrow after arrow. And Noah fought off the aliens that came onto the roof to try and take her down. After many minutes there was a suddenly cry in their heads:  
><em>I'm go-<em> And Pepper was gone.

"It's just us now." Irina whispered sadly.  
>"It's just practice." Noah said. Suddenly an alien was on him, it's dark brown skin and yellow teeth too close for comfort. It was trying to claw his chest open, or tear out his throat. It was desperate, wild, angry, and terrifying. Noah reached around him desperately. There had to be something there he could defend himself with besides his fists. He reached out and touched something rusty, an old metal garbage can lid. He smashed it against the creature's head and the alien disintegrated. He stood, looked over towards the swarm coming towards them and began making calculations. This was how he, his father, and sister used the shield. Calculations on where the shield would bounce allowed them to determine how to throw it so it would return to them. He threw the trashcan lid and it flew, spinning through the air. It bounced off of one, two, three, four, five, six, seven aliens, and then the eighth one moved.<br>"Damn!" Noah gasped as the shield flew off into oblivion.

"Noah..." Irina whispered. "I'm... I'm out of arrows." They had absolutely no way to defend themselves. Now all they could do was wait for the final dying moment. "Noah... we're going to die." Irina looked up at him with tears in her eyes. "We failed again."  
>"Hey, don't be that way." Noah smiled, gently taking her bow from her hand, and setting it aside. "It doesn't matter how many times we die in this simulation, it's just that: fake, practice, simulation. It's not real, Irina. It's for practice."<br>"But what if this happens someday in real life? What if we're not ready and we end up doing exactly this?" Irina asked.

"Look at me," Noah gently took her cheek in his hand and rubbed his thumb across her cheek bone to wipe away the tears. "It's not going to happen, that's why we're practicing. I'll always have your back, Irina Yumiko." The aliens began to realize they were still there and were turning back around towards them.  
>"We can take them." Irina whispered.<br>"What?"  
>"We can take them! There's only a few left in this wave. What building is this?"<br>"I don't know..."

"Where's Stark Tower?"  
>"Just a couple of blocks down-"<br>"Take me there. Our parents might not be there but there weapons sure as hell will. Can you outrun them?"  
>"Of course I can."<br>"Carrying me?"  
>"Maybe a little bit slower, but hell yes."<br>"Lets do it."  
>"Alright, Agent Romanoff-Barton." Noah lifted Irina into his arms and they rushed for the stairs as aliens began raining fire down on them.<br>"Captain, as much as knights in shining armor are overrated, I think you're mine right now." Irina said.  
>"Less talking, more trying not to weigh so much." Noah said as he dashed down flight after flight of stairs.<br>"Hey, I don't weigh-" Suddenly the wall burst inward behind them and aliens flew in. Irina groaned. "What are we going to do about this?"

"Got anything on you you can throw?" Noah asked.  
>"What? Do you mean besides my clothes?" Irina glared. She yanked off her fingertabs and arm guard, and threw them at the beasts behind them. "I don't think it's working."<br>"No kidding." Noah snapped.  
>"They're getting closer." Irina said, as she clung tightly to his shoulders.<br>"You're getting heavier!" Noah replied, "And the stairs are getting longer and longer."  
>"Hold on." Irina squirmed in his arms, yanking off her belt. She had left her empty quiver and pointless bow up at the top of the skyscraper.<p>

"What are you doing?" Noah gritted his teeth. She pulled herself up, so her arms were over his shoulder and as he heard an alien getting closer she swung the belt. There was a scream, and the soft explosion as the alien "died".  
>"Nice work!" Noah gasped as they left the tower and hurried onto the street where there was absolutely no cover.<p>

* * *

><p><em>Aspen Victoria Elaina Stark<em>

"Good morning, Aspen. How did you sleep?" Angelica, the youngest Barnes daughter, stood in the doorway to the huge dining room.  
>"Pretty good." Aspen nodded.<br>"I'm glad, and I'm happy you're here." Angelica nodded.  
>"I'm happy I'm here too. Where are the rest of your siblings?" Aspen hadn't meant adopted, but Angelica began listing them off anyways.<br>"Atticus is reading in the library, John is cleaning out his bedroom, Gray is training with Daddy, Naomi is still asleep, Peggy is training with Mum, and Gabrielle and Alex are on patrol." If Aspen remembered correctly it was Naomi, Peggy, Alexander, and Angelica who weren't adopted, and the rest (Atticus, John, Gray, and Gabrielle), were. Eight children was too much for Aspen to comprehend, but she knew that there were more who attributed their lives and their successes to the Barnes. Quincy and James had started taking kids and teens off the street before they were even a couple. It was those who wanted to be a part of their family, who wanted to be their children, completely under their guidance, that were adopted.

"Which of all of you do patrol under superhero names?" Aspen asked the little girl.  
>"Umm... Naomi is Raven, Alex is Hawk, Gray is the Winter Soldier, and Gabrielle is the . That's all I know. Atticus is going to school, but I don't know what for, and John's a football player. Peggy likes high school too much to patrol, she's got a boyfriend, but she still spars with mom."<br>"How old are you Angelica?"  
>"I'm twelve." Angelica said. "Someday, I'll fight with Alex, Naomi, Gray, and Gabrielle too. I'm already training with mom and dad."<br>"Aspen? There you are." Quincy stood in the doorway with a girl that Aspen had to assume was Peggy Barnes. She had dark, curling hair and bright blue eyes, which seemed to be a family trait. "I think I've come up with a way we can help you."

* * *

><p><em>Alexei Andrew Romanoff-Barton<em>

"Who'd you catch this time? Another thief?" A familiar voice muttered.  
>"Just wait until you see." Johnny Morten's voice hissed. Alexei struggled. His head was obviously under some sort of bag. He was sitting in a chair, and his hands were tied to the back with some sort of thin, but durable rope. Dammit, dammit, dammit. I'm going to die.<br>Suddenly the bag was thrown off his head and he was faced with blinding light.  
>"Behold the SHIELD agent who calls himself Jameson!" Johnny Morten cried. As Alexei's eyes adjusted to the light he saw Johnny Morten leering over him with a can of beer, and next to him was a familiar face. Daniel Banner, with deep brown eyes, and dark brown curls, swept back away from his eyes. His muscular form and jawbone were similar to his father's and brother's, and now his face held an expression of horror as he stared down at Alexei.<p>

"Alexei!?"  
>"Danny!" Alexei gasped. "The hell are you doing working with a low thief like Johnny Morten?! What would Uncle Bruce and Aunt Juliette say?"<br>"Shut up!" Danny gasped, but his voice held more fear than command.  
>"You know this tick, Greene?"<br>"Know him? I grew up with him." Danny said with a frown.  
>"Alexei you say? What's his last name?"<br>"Romanoff-Barton." Danny replied.  
>"Romanoff?!" Morten looked horrified. "Not-"<p>

"That's right, you asshole, Natalia Romanoff—spy and assassin. Many people underestimated her because she was a woman, and they learned the hard way what she was really made of. Don't underestimate me because I'm young." Alexei hissed. Morten still looked horrified, but Danny shook his head.  
>"If I could have a word with Clintovich alone, I would appreciate it, sir?"<br>"Fine, whatever. I'm gonna order pizza." Morten hurried away and Danny bent over with anger painted across his face.

"What the hell are you doing here, Alyosha?" He snapped.  
>"Don't you dare call me that, you traitor! That name is reserved for friends and family, and apparently you aren't part of those groups any more."<br>"Shut up, okay!?" Danny hissed, "You'll never understand any of it!"  
>"Try me, <em>Greene<em>!" Alexei shouted.  
>"None of my family ever cared for me!" Danny snapped, "That's why I left, okay!?"<br>"Who do you think begged me to come, you little shit!" Alexei hissed. "Your brother and sister begged me to find you. And here I am, except you've turned out to be an utter asshole and also a criminal." But Danny didn't seem to hear him.

"It was always Eric. Eric this. Eric that. Blah, blah, blah! Eric's so perfect! And then Elsa Jean was born and everyone fawned over her. She's so beautiful! She's so perfect. Look at her, isn't she darling? Elsa Jean and Eric are so smart. Blah blah blah."  
>"Your parents love you, Danny! And they need your help!" Alexei gasped.<br>"What?" Danny stopped. "Why would the great Incredible Hulk and the perfect SHIELD specialist need my help?"  
>"Danny, they've been missing for... almost three weeks." Danny froze, his eyes wide and then he threw his head back and laughed out loud.<br>"Well, this is certainly a turn of events." It pained Alexei to even see him like this. "It certainly is."

"Danny, it's your family!" He gasped.  
>"I have no family, Clintovich."<br>"I'm your family!" Alexei whispered. Danny swung his arm and smacked Alexei across the face.  
>"So..." Johnny entered the room once again. "You were here to find Danny, eh? Well, don't worry too much, we'll make sure you wake up remembering nothing." He wiped his hands on his pants and came forward with his fists raised high.<br>"Why don't you go get the nails and pliers, Danny, I've got a treat for this one."  
>"Danny! Your family needs you!" Danny turned around and faced Alexei with a horrible smile.<br>"Like I said, Alexei Clintovich, I have no family."


	15. Chapter 13 Finding those who are Missing

_Aspen Victoria Elaina Stark_

"Stark Tower was burnt down only a few weeks ago." James said. He was leaning against the old wooden panel wall of the huge living room. Quincy was leaning against him, resting her head on his shoulder. Their eight children were also gathered around, but Aspen was having trouble remembering who was who and keeping track of them, except for the two she knew really well: Naomi and Angelica. Naomi was dressed in black leather pants, boots, and a white t-shirt. Her short dark brown hair was clipped back, and in her belt were two long black batons. She had her arms crossed and was sitting on the arm of one of the green antique chairs. Her brother, Alexander, if Aspen remembered correctly, was sitting in the chair. The other children, Gray, Atticus, Peggy, Gabrielle, and John were all spread out. Angelica was sitting on one of the older boys' laps.

"Yeah, thanks for reminding me." Aspen snapped bitterly.

"Look, we're sorry that it happened." Alex said.

"But we think we can help. Along with Stark Tower you lost all tech you had access to." A tall young man, the oldest, said. He had black hair and deep brown eyes. He was one of the adopted ones, Aspen knew because all of James Barnes' children had his eyes: shocking blue.

"Yes, so?" Aspen asked.

"We have a huge computer lab, tons of resources, information beyond your wildest dreams." Quincy smiled.

"And?"

"We'll be your tech away from home. Kind of like an information system." Naomi said.

"We'll be within contact at all times and you can reach us whenever you'd like, since there's usually someone awake in this big family at all times." Quincy said.

"Okay…. Is there any info you guys can give me now?"

"Actually yes." James gently gripped Quincy's shoulders and moved her aside, marching down the hall towards their famous computer lab. Everyone followed him. When they reached the dark room the computers powered up and James typed in a few code words before a screen popped up with a huge map of the US. James typed in something and the map zoomed in on New Mexico.

"Years ago when Thor Odinson first came to earth the government and SHIELD registered crazy energy spikes in the places where he and his hammer fell." To the right side of the screen the energy readings popped up. "We learned through time that this energy spike was from the Bifrost- the rainbow bridge from mythology that allowed the Aesir to travel from Asgard to the realm of Midgard and all over Yggdrasil, the great tree of the nine realms." James zoomed out of the map and other pinpoints where the Bifrost was activated appeared. "We learned to track these readings so we could determine when and where the Bifrost was used on earth. For the government this was a…" James paused.

"A sort of safe-guard?" Aspen asked.

"Yeah, kind of… for SHIELD, it was a way of determining how to find Thor if he ever appeared. Thor had a way of knowing earth was in trouble before earth even knew it."

"Because of Heimdall." Aspen muttered.

"Huh?"

"Nothing. Continue, please."

"Well, of course no one's really monitoring these spikes of energy anymore… except us. We figured its better safe than sorry. I know nothing dangerous can come from Asgard in the form of Thor or Loki, but Odin is foolish, and he keeps many weapons in that great realm. We never know what can come out from there."

"Right. Well now that Uncle Thor and Uncle Loki are Kings of Asgard hopefully that will change." Aspen said.

"Okay, anyways. James, you ought to show her what you found." Quincy encouraged.

"Right. Look, the week you all went to Asgard there were, of course, energy spikes."

"Right. Two." Aspen nodded.

"Wrong. The week you went to Asgard there were _six." _James said. He pointed to the map where red dots blared out from New York City, and to the right six energy readings popped up.

"Six?!" Aspen frowned. "But… there were only two trips, there and back. How could there be six?!"

"Here's my theory." Naomi said, "We can eliminate the two that belong to you guys, the other four though… Obviously there's two trips per time, right? There and back, or here and back, unfortunately we can't register which way the transfer was. However, we can see when they took place. The first two were three days after you left- the day before we found out the Avengers were missing."

"Holy shit." Aspen breathed.

"The second two was five days after you left, two days after the first two." James said. "When, I suspect, the kidnapper burnt down the tower to get rid of any evidence of the kidnapping."

"But who would do something like this? I mean, Asgard, right now, is a generally peaceful place-"

"That's the clever bit." Alexander said with a smile. "He's- or she- they're not from Asgard. These energy readings are different. They're distorted, almost like someone built their own transportation device, kind of like the Bifrost, but it's got different… I don't know… it's so strange."

"Look." James clicked on two energy readings, one from one of their jumps and one from the mystery jumps. "See the difference."

"They are…." Aspen took in a breath. "There's high levels of gamma radiation…"

"Extremely toxic levels, so whoever takes these jumps, they're life threatening. More than a couple jumps could poison your body. I mean, unless you're a Banner." James said.

"What does this mean for our kidnapper?" Aspen asked.

"Either, (a.) our kidnapper is ridiculously stupid, (b.) he's already been exposed to gamma radiation, so it doesn't matter, or (c.) he's a god."

"Like Uncle Thor and Uncle Loki?" Aspen asked.

"Exactly, an Aesir of Asgard." James nodded.

"There is also the possibility that there's more than one of them." Quincy said. "After all, taking down the Avengers is quite a feat."

"Indeed." James nodded slowly. "There are innumerable possibilities, only one fact remains. You need help from the inside Aspen Victoria, not just from us."

"Well, Uncle Thor and Uncle Loki asked that we contact them if there's danger but we have no way of contacting them… unless…" Aspen looked up at the energy readings. "We… we reverse…"

"We reverse the Asgardian energy readings to send a message to the sky." James grinned.

"Can you do it?" Aspen asked.

"Oh, hell no. I'm not nearly technologically advanced enough for that, but I know Atticus can." He looked over at his adopted son who grinned and nodded.

"And what about me?"

"In order for this person, whoever or whatever he or she is, to get to the Avengers he or she must have had someone or some people here on the ground. You need to find them and get information out of them. For that you're going to need help. We're sending Naomi and Gray with you."

"Good. I'll need more help than those assholes from SHIELD, well… not all of them are assholes. Really just one."

"At any rate, you keep in touch with us." Quincy said, gently hugging Aspen, "We're going to find your parents."

"I know. Thank you all so much."

"Anything for my old friends." James smiled. Aspen looked over to Naomi and Gray.

"You guys ready?" The two of them nodded. "Suit up."

* * *

><p><em>Noah Anthony Rogers<em>

"How much farther!?" Irina screamed.

"Almost there!" Noah gasped. Irina screamed in rage as one of the aliens drew close. She swung the belt again and the beast suffered from a mighty, stinging blow. Suddenly Noah burst through the doors of Stark Tower and they tumbled to the elevator, which was thankfully working.

"Armory." Noah gasped. Irina was slung over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes, and as they were at last alone she finally relaxed her arms, and let them hang down as if she had no control over them. Strands of her curly red hair were stuck to her sweaty forehead, and her eyes were filled with exhaustion, but she was none-the-less beautiful.

"I don't think I'm going to live." She choked. Noah shook his head, remembering his father's battles. How could he survive killing humans in the World War when Noah and Irina couldn't even pull off killing aliens? This was harder than he had anticipated. Suddenly the doors opened and they entered the armory, which was stock full of weapons. Noah grabbed Steve's shield and a rifle. Irina grabbed a crossbow, which she strapped to her back along with her quiver, and her father's recurve bow. Noah set her down on the table as she strapped on her finger tabs and arm guard. The tower shook as the aliens tried getting in.

"What's a good vantage point for you?" He asked.

"Top of the tower."

"Same. Let's go." He reached out to pull Irina into his arms, but she pushed him away.

"I'm good. I think I've got this." She stood up, winced, and then slowly began walking. "It's just a little sore. Now let's go win this thing." Noah laughed and hugged her tightly.

"Glad you're alright, Ina." He smiled, and he kissed her forehead. She gripped her bow tightly, and with her other head traced her finger down the seam of his uniform.

"Captain America." She whispered, "Savior of Simulation New York."

"And…" An alien suddenly burst through the wall, screaming its head off.

"Shit!" Irina grabbed the closest thing available, a quiver, and swung it, sending the alien's head flying across the room. Gasping she turned towards Noah and glared, "Maybe I'm the savior of New York."

"Quiver."

"What?"

"Quiver. That's what they'll call you."

"Who? Your imaginary friends? We're running out of time, let's go!"

* * *

><p><em>Alexei Romanoff-Barton<em>

_"__Once I dreamed I was a dandelion." Irina giggled. _

_ "__A dandelion!?" Clint laughed, swooping his seven-year-old daughter into his arms. Her dark red curls flew in the wind as she squealed in excitement. "Did you roar?" _

_ "__No, daddy! Dandelions don't roar. Dandelions are flowers. You make a wish!" _

_ "__Oh! What did you wish for?" Alexei asked, curious. _

_ "__I wished that we'd always be together, because I love you all!" Irina said. _

_ "__Oh, honey, I promise we'll always be together." Clint said, falling to his knees and embracing both his son and daughter tightly. "Always." _

Alexei woke to water cascading down on his head. Danny stood over him with a bucket. He hadn't seen Danny since the poor boy had retrieved Morten's torture devices, and now the young man was trembling. Terror was in his brown eyes. And through his swollen eyes and ringing ears Alexei thought he saw and heard Danny Banner whisper, _I'm Sorry. _But then Johnny Morten burst through the door and Daniel Bruce withdrew into the other room.

"Hello, tick. Ready to talk? Ready to tell me everything you know about SHIELD?"

"I told you, I have nothing to say to you." Alexei choked on his own blood. Johnny Morten had ripped out five of his fingernails and toenails and had jabbed nails underneath the others. He had whipped Alexei so much across his chest and back that the young man was sure there was probably no skin left there. He'd beaten him with a wrench, cut his lip with tacks, and carved the words _Shit Hole Isolation for Every Living Dick (SHIELD) _into the soft flesh of his left underarm. Thank God it was his underarm. He couldn't go walking around with that sort of language on his body, even if it would eventually just be scar tissue. Johnny Morten pulled out a gun, pointing it right at Alexei's head.

"One last chance, tick, before I blow your brains out. Surely you've got someone who's expecting you to come home." _Emma… Irina… The others too. _But it was the thought of his partner and sister that pained him the most.

"Fine then. End the misery." This seemed to anger the thief even more.

"You know what, how about I put a bullet in little Danny's head, huh? Would you prefer that? I can do that."

"You wouldn't." Alexei smiled, "He's too valuable. He's too powerful. The gamma radiation in his cells… you know the amounts can't be replicated to perfection. Something will always inevitably go wrong." Talking was becoming laborious. Soon, he would lose even that privilege, and not too much longer after that he would be gone.

"Listen here, you little dick, you tell me what the fuck-" There was a clang and a thud and Alexei grinned, despite the sharp pain that shot threw his cut up lips.

"You really think I wouldn't tell anyone where the fuck I was going, _tick?" _ He gasped. The door burst open, and the moment it did Johnny threw himself behind Alexei and pressed the gun barrel to the SHIELD agent's temple. In the doorway stood Alexei's savior: Emma Everett.

"Boy, am I glad to see you, sweetheart." Alexei choked. Emma's beautiful blue eyes were filled with piercing fury.

"Put the gun down, Johnny, and I won't kill you for this. Hell, maybe they'll just throw you in regular prison if you end this now. Otherwise… you might end up somewhere nasty."

"Take one step closer, Agent, and I blow this one's brains out." Emma sighed, dramatically.

"That's what I was afraid of." In two seconds flat Emma was under Johnny, swinging out her leg, and knocking him over. Then she slammed her foot down on his head. The thief was out cold. She flipped her blond braid over her shoulder and looked over at Alexei with sudden horror in her eyes.

"Yosha, what the hell?!"

"Took you long enough." He mumbled, through bleeding lips. She rushed towards him and cut the rope around his hands.

"I'm not really a fan of cryptic notes, Alexei." She choked, and Alexei realized she was crying as she grabbed his hands and stared down at his broken fingernails and the nails sticking out of the others. "I'm going to pull these out now." She whispered. He shrugged. And she slowly yanked out all the nails and threw them onto the floor.

"A SHIELD team should be hear soon, I contacted Ward as soon as I got here. They'll take care of Danny and Morten, okay? Don't worry about anything else. I've got you." She pulled the nails out of his toes, and the tacks out of his earlobes, and gently lifted him up so he was leaning on her. Her white suit was being covered in blood, but she didn't care She led him out of the apartment and into her car, and though every step felt like he was dying he didn't say a word. He lay down in her back seat and closed his eyes. They drove away just as a SHIELD car drove up. Emma drove for a long time before she stopped. He knew instinctively that they were at her house, and she pulled him up out of his mire of agony and took him to her room where she set him on her white sheets.

"I'll be right back, okay? I'm going to get some warm water running." She came back moments later with a bucket full of warm water and a large washcloth. She began with his face, gently dabbing and rubbing away the blood. He knew that he probably looked hideous. He was afraid to look in any mirrors. His eyes were swollen, his lips were swollen, actually his whole face hurt. But she wiped away the blood, and then took out her first aid kit. She sterilized a needle with flame and slowly began stitching up the large gash in his forehead from the wrench.

"Everything's going to be okay now." She said, but her hand was shaking. Alexei reached up and grabbed it.

"Emma." He whispered. She froze and her frosty blue eyes looked down at him. "Thank you." She stared at him as if he were saying something utterly ridiculous and then she rested her lips against his. It was nothing more than that, just a gentle touch, but despite the pain it sent Alexei reeling. The next moment she was back to work, washing his ears, and then gently ripping his shirt off his chest, and cleaning those wounds, stitching up things if necessary. Soon, the blood was washed away and she was bandaging everything that was particularly bad.

_"__Alright, Alexei, you're going to get your second assignment very soon, but first I have to introduce you to this young lady." Director Coulson, who would soon pass on the title to Aunt Maria, gestured to the young woman with strikingly blue eyes and short light blond hair. She smiled, but looked like a handful. _

_ "__Good day." She said._

_ "__Umm… Hi. I'm Alexei Romanoff-Barton." _

_ "__I'm Emma Everett." _

_ "__Agent Everett is going to be your new partner, Alexei." Coulson said. _

_ "__What?!" He had been fresh out of academy, eighteen years old, and full of his own ideas. "I don't want to work with anyone." _

_ "__Everyone has a partner. Now, sometimes you'll be working alone, but for the most part you'll work together and you'll always have each other's backs." _

_ "__Yes, sir." Emma saluted. Alexei glared. _

_ "__Fine." He mumbled, looking at the girl with frustration. __**She'll just slow me down. That's all. I'll show Coulson that she'll be of no use to me. **_

Oh how wrong he'd been.

"Alyosha? Are you hungry?" Emma had gently leaned him back against the pillows and the head of the queen-sized bed.

"I don't know how well I could chew anything right now."

"How about some tea and chicken broth?" she whispered, gently pressing her hand against his bruised forehead.

"That sounds…" He coughed, and it sent shocks of pain through his body. "Good." Emma hurried out of the room to prepare his food and was back only a little bit later with his beverage and dinner. _More like midnight snack. _It was 2:23 AM according to the clock on Emma's bedside table, but Alexei hadn't eaten in what seemed like days, so Emma helped feed him, because of shaking, throbbing fingers and then she helped him lie back in bed.

"You need to get your rest so you can heal faster. If you're going to find your parents you're going to need strength." Her voice had a tremble to it, as if she were afraid of something.

"Emma." Alexei whispered as she pulled the blankets up to his chest. "I'm…" He was going somewhere different, but when he saw the fear in her eyes he immediately changed his statement to a completely off-subject question. "You're afraid you'll wake up and come in here and I'll be gone."

"Gone… you mean dead." She sat down on the edge of the bed and crossed her legs, gently laying her hands on his chest. "I suppose… yes. I am afraid of that. What would I do with myself?"

"Emma. I'm not going to die." Alexei assured her. "I've lived this long, I'm not giving up when I'm this close to going home to my sister and the rest of my family. Besides," he paused and shook his head. "I can't leave you. What would you do without me?" She laughed and shook her head.

"Goodnight, Agent Barton."

"Emma." Alexei choked, "You can't leave me here alone in the dark!" Emma smiled. "Besides, where will you sleep?"

"Alright, alright." Emma rounded the bed and climbed in next to him, resting her head gently on his shoulder, (the one that was wound-free), and sighed, pulling the blankets up to her chin. "I'll protect you from the dark, Agent." She whispered.

"Goodnight, partner."

"Goodnight."


	16. Chapter 14 Back Home

**Guys, this is such an AU (just like the first one sort of turned into). :)**

**So yeah. **

**Thanks for reading this far and being awesome!**

**-randomblueboots**

* * *

><p><em>Noah Anthony Rogers <em>

Everyone has moments in their lives where they feel like things are moving in slow motion, and if you could just move faster than time you could prevent that horrible something from happening. But, just like the rest of the world you're stuck in that whirl of slow motion and you can't burst free. It was in a slow motion moment that Noah realized Irina was going to die, of course, as he had assured her, it was just a simulation, but it terrified him to be all alone. He couldn't lose her, so he threw his shield. If his calculations were correct then it should flash in front of her just as the energy blast…

"Noah!" Irina gasped. The slow motion feeling was gone and she was alive. The energy blast from the alien's weapon bounced off his shield, and she stood, alive. It made him breath in with relief. "Thanks." Irina spun around and continued firing her weapon.

"Now, how do we complete this level?" Noah gasped.

"I think we have to close the portal, like at the original battle of New York!" Irina called, shooting another alien in the eye.

"This battle is not modeled after the original one." Noah said. "There's something else." He could see what Jarvis was doing. Fewer and fewer aliens were appearing. They were winning the fight. He looked down into the streets and saw the alien general, it's bright, glowing green eyes flashed when it looked back up at him. "We have to kill the general!"

"How?!"

"Fight our way to him!"

* * *

><p><em>Eric Matthew Banner<em>

"They've been in there for hours." James moaned.

"Actually it's been one hour to be exact, not including the many you spent defeating the other missions I gave you." Jarvis said. Eric rolled his eyes.

"What's taking them so long?" Kate sighed.

"They are, in fact, accomplishing a mission you failed to accomplish." Jarvis said.

"Heyyy!" Josh glared.

"Jarvis, remind me to have Aspen change your personality as soon as she gets back from wherever she is." Kate snapped.

"Hey, settle down." Eric said.

"Changing my personality is not a part of any sort of programming I have, Miss Rogers."

"Augh." Suddenly the doors to the training room burst open and out walked Noah and Irina. Irina was leaning against Noah, her arm around his shoulder, and she was limping.

"We did it!" Noah gasped. "We beat the simulation!" Everyone cheered, and danced around Noah and Irina, leading them to the kitchen where Pepper had begun putting pizzas in the oven. The excitement however, was short lived. The door opened and Adrian Ward rushed in.

"Irina Romanoff-Barton?!"

"I- I'm here." Irina looked startled, and she gripped Noah's shoulder more tightly. Eric watched her and Adrian's movements closely. Something was extremely wrong.

"We've received word from your brother, Alexei."

"Oh my god. Something's wrong."

"He's been tortured. We've recovered him and he's in a secure location so there's nothing to worry about any more. I've been sent to inform you. I know it's hard to think that Alexei's fine, but I promise you he is. He's under the protection of one of our best agents and…" Eric looked over at Irina in shock. The poor girl looked frozen in horror, and very confused.

"Wait… Wait! Alexei's hurt?!"

"Yes, but…"

"Where is he?"

"We can't take you to him. He's in a classified area. He'll be returning home tomorrow morning."

"No! I have to see him, he's my brother!"

"Adrian." Eric suddenly spoke up. "Who tortured Alexei?"

"A criminal named Johnny Morten. The rest is classified information."

"Take me to him!" Irina gasped.

"That's against regulations, Miss Romanoff-Barton. Rest assured Agent Fury will be recovering your brother tomorrow morning and taking him back here. You'll see him tomorrow, that's all I can do for you." Adrian turned to leave.

"Adrian!" Eric called after him as horror crept up his spine: _The rest is classified information. _"Was my brother there?" Adrian paused, hesitating.

"I'm sorry, Mr. Banner. The rest is… the rest is classified information." He whispered, and then he left.

* * *

><p><em>Aspen Victoria Elaina Stark<em>

_Ahhh… New York! It's good to be home at last! _Aspen flew over the city, excitement pulsing through her. She'd be meeting Gray and Naomi on the ground in central park. What she didn't realize was that she'd be meeting someone else as well. The moment she landed she turned to find her new companions but was faced with a media team of some sort.

"Miss-! Miss-! IronWoman!" A tall young woman on black heels and with long red hair came rushing towards her with a microphone and a camera crew. Aspen jerked back in surprise. She'd been on TV before, but never like this.

"Umm… actually, it's IronMaid."

"Right! We're on air in three…two…one… Hi, this is Elizabeth Parker with the Daily Bugle. I'm here on air at Central Park where I've been talking with IronMaid. A few of you may have seen this masked hero in the sky a couple days ago, mistaking her for perhaps Tony Stark, but it is not. Now, the public would just like a few questions answered, IronMaid."

"Umm… go ahead." Aspen breathed. What would her dad do in this stupid situation? Be an idiot was probably the answer. _Parker… Parker… I know Elizabeth Parker… but how?!_

"How do you suppose you were not captured along with the rest of the Avengers?" Elizabeth asked, shoving the microphone towards Aspen's face mask.

"Actually, I was out of the country, and also, I wasn't part of the Avengers. We suspect that whoever kidnapped them wanted revenge for something that those specific Avengers did."

"Who built your suit?"

"Well, that was my- I mean… Tony Stark did, obviously. He's been my mentor all this time. I was going to take up the mantle of Ironman."

"Really?!" Elizabeth gasped, "That is good news! For some time the public have been wondering who will take up the mantles of the Avengers. What about Captain America? Do you know anything about his successor?"

"I have no idea." Aspen said.

"And so, what is your most important job right now as an Avenger?" Elizabeth asked. _Oh yeah, Parker! As in Peter! No wonder I recognized her! Wow, all grown up she looks just like her mother! _

Mary-Jane Watson and Peter Parker had had a daughter before Peter married Gwen Stacy. **(See, guys, such an AU)** This must be Elizabeth Parker, Peter and Mary-Jane's daughter. She did, after all, have her mother's beautiful red hair and sparkling green eyes. Being a reporter obviously ran in the family.

"I would say my most important job is finding the Avengers and bringing them back home where they belong. They have families here that miss them desperately."

"Well, that's a wonderful task…"

"Now, if you'll excuse me, I've got to get to it!" Aspen shot up into the air and watched as the cameras followed her. She had spotted Gray and Naomi at the edge of the park. There, she landed and ordered the suit to return to the old bunker where they were staying.

"We'll grab a taxi to the tower and take the sewers back to the bunker." She informed Gray and Naomi.

"Sewers?!" Naomi glared.

"Sounds perfectly lovely." Gray snorted.

* * *

><p><em>Alexei Romanoff-Barton<em>

"Alexei! Yosha! Wake up!" Emma gently shook him, and for a moment he thought perhaps they were on a mission again. Then the searing pain reappeared and he remembered everything.

"What?" He groaned.

"Nick Fury's here. He's taking you home."

"You're coming too, right?"

"Actually, I've got to report to HQ, but I'll see you again soon, okay?" Before he could answer Nick Fury stepped through the door.

"Agent Barton." He nodded to Alexei. "How are you feeling?"

"Like crap." Alexei replied, his voice was hoarse and he tasted blood. One of the cuts along his lip had broken open again. Emma ran her hand across his forehead, gently pressing her cool fingers to his temple.

"He needs medical help. From a professional. Any one of these wounds could become infected and then he could be done for." Emma said. "I stitched everything up as best as I could, but… I'm not a doctor."

"Thank you, Agent Everett."

"Of course, sir." Emma whispered.

"Agent Barton, we're going to get you recovered quickly. SHIELD needs eyes, ears, and skills like yours if we're going to find your parents."

"But, sir," Alexei said, "The Wards fired me."

"Bull shit. The Wards aren't in charge anymore. SHIELD has been falling apart since Maria disappeared. The Wards aren't leaders, they're fighters. I'm taking back command."

"Sir?!" Alexei gasped, as if he didn't dare believe it was true.

"Welcome back, Agent." Fury nodded.

"Thank you, sir."

"Now let's get you home and fixed up so we can find your parents."


	17. Chapter 15 Not Very good Company

_Aspen Victoria Elaina Stark_

They approached the bunker doors in the sewer and just as they reached them Gray's phone rang. He frowned, reached into his pocket and pulled it out.

"It's home." He stated.

"Answer it!" Naomi urged. Aspen watched as Gray clicked the answer button and then "Speaker".

"Hello?" He said.

"Gray? Is that you?" Quincy's voice asked.

"Hi, mom!" Naomi grinned.

"Hey, guys, where are you?" James asked.

"We're just outside the bunker, about to meet the rest of the Avengers Generation 2 Clan." Gray replied.

"Oh good! I'm glad you made it!" Quincy's voice was filled with relief. "I forgot to tell you to call when you go there."

"We're fine, mom. I'm twenty-two years old." Gray said. "I can take care of myself and Naomi."

"Hey! I can take care of myself!" Naomi hissed. Aspen grinned.

"Alright, well, you two be careful. Tell Aspen we'll call as soon as we figure out the energy readings."

"Yes, mom." Gray nodded.

"Bye!" James called.

Aspen realized how long it had been since she'd seen Pepper. She'd been away longer than this before, but never angry like she was now. She opened her mind, and reached out for her little sister.

_Essie? _

_ASPEN! _Pepper's voice screamed in her head with delight. _Where are you!? Oh my gosh, I was so worried! Where did you go? Why did you block me? I've missed you so much! Where are you? _

_I'm coming in right now! _Aspen said and she opened the door to fall into the arms of her sister. Essie was still as beautiful as ever, with shoulder-length blond hair and beautiful blue eyes. She hugged Aspen tightly, tears trickling down her cheeks.

_I've missed you so much! I've missed you so much! _Then she realized someone else was there. _Who are they? _

_These are Gray and Naomi Barnes. _

_Barnes? As in James and Quincy? _

_Yea_h.

"Umm… what's going on?" Naomi asked.

"Oh. Sorry. Pepper and I have a connection." Aspen said, "We speak through our minds."

"I've heard that." Gray nodded. "Dad told me you two are somehow bonded like that."

"That's cool!" Naomi gasped.

"Gray, Naomi, this is Pepper, my baby sister."

"Hi!" Pepper smiled. Suddenly James raced into the room, laughing his head off, followed closely by Elsa Jean.

"Get back here you villainous rat!" she hissed. "Or I'll _pulse_!"

"Please don't!" Kate called from where she was reading on the sofa.

"James, stop bothering Elsa." Noah's voice called from the kitchen.

"Hey, idiots! Aspen's back!" Pepper called. Everyone jumped to attention, turning to face Aspen quickly. Noah ran from the kitchen doorway, to stand in the living room next to his brother, and Elsa, whose glowing green eyes were dying away to be replaced by her beautiful brown ones.

"Aspen!" Katie cried, leaping to her feet and running to hug her friend. The rest of the gang came out from the hallway. Essie had obviously summoned them in her head.

"Aspen! It's so good to see you!" Elsa Jean grinned, also gracing the young woman with an embrace. Irina looked teary-eyed and smiled at Aspen, but said nothing more. Aspen noted that Noah moved over to be with the young redhead, and took her hand in his. _I suppose some things are just meant to be. _She thought.

_You noticed too? I told you they're in love! _

_Any lovey-dovey stuff going on since I left? _Aspen asked.

_No. I mean, they train together and all that, and they work really well together, but nothing blatantly obvious. _

"So." Eric said, after greetings of Aspen were complete. "Are you going to introduce us to your guests?" He gestured to Naomi and Gray.

"Oh yeah! Guys, these are Naomi and Gray Barnes. They're here to help." Aspen began telling everyone the whole story of where she went and how the Barnes promised they could help.

"So we could finally get in touch with Asgard and have some help at last!" She finished.

"Wow!" Elsa Jean gasped.

"Aspen, that's genius! Just wait until we tell Adrian!" Eric said. At those words Aspen glared.

_Adrian!? We're still working with that idiot? Why?! _

_Relax, Aspen, Adrian's team has finally managed the narrow the time slots down on the camera feed, soon we might get a good look at who our parents' captors were. _Essie thought.

_I don't care. Adrian Ward is an asshole. I hate him. _

_Aspen, hate is a harsh word. You hardly know him. _

_Shut up. _

"So, will Gray and Naomi be staying here then?" Josh asked.

"Yes. Don't worry, we have plenty of room in the bunker… hey…" Aspen paused looking around. "Where's Alexei?"

* * *

><p><em>Alexei Romanoff-Barton<em>

It was good to be back at SHIELD HQ. The long white halls he was wheeled down felt like home, and even though every cell in his body hurt like hell, and he was on a stretcher, it was nice to be back.

"We contacted your sister a little bit ago." Director Fury said as he followed the nurses down the hall to what would be Alexei's hospital room. "We sent someone to go retrieve her. I'm sure you'll both be happy to see each other."

"What about the Banners, sir?" Alexei asked.

"What about them?"

"We have Danny in our custody. What are we going to tell them?" Alexei frowned.

"Leave that to me. I will talk to them alone."

"And the Wards?"

"Skye and Grant Ward are still some of my top agents, their son is still chief of security, but I think he'll be better off as head of our most important mission."

"Which is?" Alexei asked.

"Finding your parents, Agent." Director Fury spoke quickly to the nurse before she wheeled Alexei into his new hospital room. Finally he would get some pain killers and proper stitching and cleaning of his wounds. The nurse, and Doctor James were able to accomplish this with ease. Only moments after they were done Irina came rushing in. When she saw his face she gasped, and shook her head.

"What did he do to you!?"

"I think you can basically see what he did to me." Alexei muttered. He was extremely glad to see his baby sister, and she didn't need to be hearing about what Johnny Morten did to torture him.

"Oh my god, Yosha." She ran up to him and hugged him gently, careful of his cuts and wounds. "What happened? You have to tell me what happened." He couldn't tell her everything. Eric and Elsa Jean needed to hear about Danny first. So he told her that he caught up with Johnny Morten, but Danny wasn't there. He explained that Johnny thought it would be easy to steal SHIELD secrets since he had captured one of SHIELD's agents. He didn't go into any details about the tortures, but he told Irina how Emma Everett came to his rescue.

Irina, Clint, and Tasha had only met Emma once. Irina had described her as beautiful, and very calm. Once when he had been complaining to his parents about Coulson giving him a partner his mother had reprimanded him.

_"__Alexei Barton! Emma is a very nice and very skilled young woman. You're lucky to have her with you!" _

_ "__But I don't need a partner, I don't want one. I'm better off working alone."_

_ "__Trust me, son, in the long run you're not." Clint looked over at his wife knowingly. "Your mother and I have been working together on missions for years. It's always a blessing to have her with me."_

"Wow, Alexei, I'm so glad you're alright." Irina breathed. "When Adrian came in and told me you'd been hurt I was so afraid…" She paused and shook her head. "You're all I have left." Tears filled her green eyes and Alexei smiled, even though it probably didn't make his face look any better.

"Irina Yumiko! Mom and Dad are fine, and we're going to find them, okay?"

"Alright." Irina nodded.

"How've you been holding up?" He asked her.

"Fine. Noah and I have been training really hard." She sighed, "In case, we… I mean, maybe someday we'll become the Avengers, like mom and dad."

"Irina. We are the Avengers. Someday has come. It's time for us to do something about it."

"You're right."

"And we don't have to worry about doing it alone. Nick Fury will back us up."

"Yeah, you're right. Would you like to see everyone else?"

"I'd love to." Alexei smiled. He wondered where Emma was as the rest of his friends crowded into his room.

* * *

><p><em>Eric Matthew Banner<em>

"Hello, sir." Eric shook the new Director's hand and then so did Elsa Jean. _What does the director want with us? _He knew Elsa Jean was asking herself the same question. Of course, the government (once they found out about them), would label them a hazard, like they had labeled their father, but Nicholas Fury wasn't like that. He believed that they were humans, just like everyone else. Eric supposed that was why Pepper liked Xavier's school so much, because there everyone was a human, though perhaps a little more advanced.

"Good afternoon, Dr. I mean… Mr. Banner." Nick Fury rarely slipped up like that so something was indeed wrong. "Miss Banner."

"What's going on?" Elsa Jean asked. Alexei was wheeled in the room by a young woman Eric vaguely recognized. It was Alexei's partner in her white uniform, tall and slim with long blond hair. What was her name? Emily? No. Emma.

"Agent Barton informed me he left to search for your brother, Daniel Bruce Banner."

"Well, yes. He offered, and we hoped that-"

"I found him." Alexei breathed.

"I knew it." Eric sighed. He knew something was terribly wrong. Elsa Jean looked ecstatic.

"Where?! How is he? Is he okay? Does he know about mom and dad? Will he be coming home soon?!"

"That's the thing…" Alexei frowned. He looked terrible. Really, really terrible. Though the swelling in his face had gone down some, one of his eyes was swollen nearly shut. There was a huge gash across his forehead that was stitched up and now covered with a bandage. He was wearing a t-shirt so Eric could see where the bandage stuck out from his back, chest, and also around his left arm. Each individual finger also had their own bandages. He would have looked almost like a mummy if it hadn't been for the red hair sticking out from the bandage on his head, and also his uncovered arms, which he held gingerly in his lap, as if any touch would hurt him. "Danny doesn't want to come home." Alexei frowned.

"Why?" Eric looked down at his sister, who looked sad, but she almost looked as though she were partly expecting that answer.

"Danny has gamma radiation in his cells like you two do." Fury said.

"Does he hulk out too?" Eric asked.

"No, he uses the energy differently, like Elsa Jean. Danny can run faster than you can see. He's been working with Johnny Morten to rob banks in seconds."

"What?" Eric growled.

"I will say that Danny did not take part in my torture. He refused. But Danny's a thief. Right now we're holding him in the holding cells downstairs." Alexei said.

"You're… you're what?" Elsa Jean looked horrified.

"He's downstairs." Fury said nonchalantly. "You can see him if you'd like, but that kid needs some sort of help because he seems to be under the impression that his family doesn't give a fuck about him."

"He needs his family and we need him." Eric replied. "Where is he?"

"I'll take you." Fury nodded.

"Elsie, you want to come?" Eric asked. Elsa Jean looked up at her big brother with fear in her eyes and shook her head.

"I can't… I can't see him the way he is… I need to remember the good Danny. _My _Danny. Not Johnny Morten's Danny."

"Alright. You can stay here with Alexei and I." Emma smiled, compassion in her eyes. Eric wondered what her back story was.

"Follow me, Mr. Banner." Director Fury led Eric down the large stairs of the SHIELD headquarters into the huge basement. It was partway made of holding cells, and the other part was storage. Danny's cell was in the far corner, at the end of the other side of the room from the stairs. Fury stopped and gestured for Eric to go on alone. Eric walked slowly over to the cell. _How is this the way things have ended up? _He remembered when little Danny was born. His parents were so ecstatic, and he was so excited he couldn't hold still. He had a little brother! Someone he could teach the ways of being a little boy, playing and telling tales of far-off castles, superheroes, or aliens. He remembered when Elsa Jean was born and how his father made both of them swear they'd always protect her. _"You can be the knights. Pretend Elsa Jean is the princess. You've got to protect her from all the bad knights, if they come." "Alright, Daddy." _

Danny. All grown up. Oh god. What would he say? What could he say? Danny was a criminal. Danny was broken.

"Danny." Eric breathed. His younger brother looked up. Their similarities were striking. If Danny didn't have a more oval-shaped face, and lighter eyes they could have been mistaken as twins.

"Eric." His eyes flashed with a long-lost memory. "What are you doing here? Have you come to mock me?"

"Remember when we used to play knights in shining armor?" Eric asked, sitting on a stool outside the cell.

"Yes." Danny whispered.

"We were both knights. We never fought over who was good and who was bad, we were both good. I was Sir Eric and you were Sir Daniel. We were knights under King Arthur, protecting the realm." He paused, "And Elsa Jean."

"Elsa Jean. Is she here?!" Danny looked up eagerly.

"She's upstairs. She wouldn't come see you. She can't stand even thinking about what you've done."

"I didn't touch Alexei!" Danny snapped, "That was all Morten."

"You didn't think to call it in? Or to stop him? And you're a thief, Danny. You're wanted in like fifteen different States. They call you the Green Blur. We all know it's you. What have you done, Danny? You always wanted to make Dad and Mom proud. How does this accomplish that? What would they say if they knew what you've done?"

"I don't care about what mom and dad think anymore!" Danny gasped.

"That's not true." Eric said. "You wanted nothing more than for them to love you. Well guess what, Danny. They love you very much! We all do. We've missed you incredibly. Ever since you've gone missing mom and dad haven't stopped looking for you!"

"Eric. I do what I do because I believe I can find happiness elsewhere."

"You do what you do because you're a thief! You're greedy, selfish, and you're wallowing in your own self-pity when we can help each other. Come on, Danny we're family. We love each other. We fight sometimes… we get over it. You're my brother, Danny, and I love you. Elsa loves you. Mom and Dad, they love you."

"Shut up, Eric! It's all words! All of it! You and Elsa Jean, you were always the important ones. I was nothing! Nothing!"

"That's not true, Danny. Make of yourself what you will, but you were never nothing. You'll always be everything to us. And now you can choose your path. We never used to fight over bad and good. We always worked together under King Arthur's reign. Are you going to fight against evil like we used to… or are you going to become that evil? Your choice. I'll tell Elsa you're not very cheerful company." Eric muttered as he left the room.


	18. Chapter 16 Messages

_Noah Anthony Rogers_

"Hey, umm… You're Naomi, right?"

"Yeah." Naomi nodded. Noah stood in the kitchen where she was making herself a sandwich. Naomi and Gray had settled into the bunker, ready to help in any way they could. "And you're Noah Rogers… my dad's like best friends with your dad." Naomi said.

"Yeah. Barnes, right? My little brother's name is James."

"Yup. My dad only had one boy that wasn't adopted. He let Mom name him Alexander, but it's Alexander Steven."

"So, you kind of took your mom and dad's place, saving Nortonville?"

"Yeah. I guess. Gray took on the mantle of the Winter Soldier and I took on Raven."

"So… you spar much? Seems like the only way to pass the time now." Noah said.

"Yeah, a little bit. I've heard Tony Stark had far more advanced ways of training, though."

"Oh yes. Irina and I just beat level twelve of Jarvis' mission simulations."

"That sounds pretty cool." Naomi smiled. Noah looked over at where Irina was watching them with narrowed eyes. He smiled, and waved her over. She came, hesitantly, flipping her beautiful red curls away from her face, and over her shoulder.

"Zdrasvootya." She said coolly, crossing her arms as she looked over at Naomi. They were probably about the same height.

"I was just telling Naomi about Jarvis' mission simulations." Noah said.

"They sound really awesome. I'd love to try them out."

"You want to try one now?" Noah asked.

"I'd love to!" Naomi smiled. Irina glared, and bit her lip.

"The training room's just down the hall." Noah said. Naomi began hurrying down the hall and Noah turned towards Irina. "You coming?"

"Noah!" Irina looked frustrated. "_I'm _your sparring partner."

"Well, I figured it'd be good to get to know Gray and Naomi since we're working with them. You can come and we'll all work together."

"But… I thought… I thought we were partners." Irina glared.

"We are!" Noah nodded, "But it'll be good to have some new insight on the levels and easier and quicker ways to beat them. We might beat level 12 faster! After all, Naomi and Gray have experience in these things when we don't." Irina just turned away, muttering,

"I can't believe you were talking to her like that."

"What? Like what?"

"All friendly!" Irina snapped.

"But-!"

"Have fun in the simulation." She stalked away angrily and Noah stared after her, completely confused.

"What just happened?" He mumbled, slowly making his way down the hallway. Irina had been angry at him like that one time before, when was it? Oh yeah, when Aspen had her hangover and he was helping her down the hall. Why was she such jerk to both of them, Aspen and Naomi? He couldn't possibly comprehend what was going on her mind. One thing he did know was that walking into the training room without her made it seem extremely empty and sad.

* * *

><p><em>Alexei Romanoff-Barton<em>

"Alexei's back!" James shouted just as Emma wheeled her partner through the door. Irina threw down the journal she was writing in and dashed towards her brother. She embraced him tightly.

"Ow. Ow. Ow." Alexei gasped.

"Sorry! I'm so glad you're back, Alyosha!"

"I'm glad too." But Alexei noticed, that despite her smile Irina seemed troubled. He'd have to ask her about it later. Everyone else came to greet him, happily welcoming him back home.

"Alexei, this is Naomi and Gray Barnes."

"Umm… as in James?"

"Yeah, remember I told you they came to help?" Irina said.

"Oh yeah. Nice to meet you guys." Alexei shook both their hands with his bandaged one, and smiled, "Sorry about the bandages. Morten kind of ripped out my fingernails."

"Ow." Naomi frowned.

"Yeah. A little bit." Suddenly Gray's phone rang. He looked down and said,

"It's home."

"Answer it!" Aspen whispered. Gray pressed the answer button and then Speaker.

"Gray?" It was James Barnes. Alexei recognized his voice.

"Hey, dad. What's going on?"

"Is Aspen there?"

"Everyone's here, dad. We have it on speaker phone."

"We found a way to reverse the Bifrost energy readings and send a message up to Asgard!" Another voice said.

"Atticus?" Naomi asked.

"Yeah." The voice replied. "I can't believe I was able to do it. It's some pretty complex technology."

"Well, can you send a message then?" Aspen asked.

"What would you like us to say? The frequency is such that it has to be pretty short and pretty basic, but we can do it." Quincy said. Alexei looked over at Irina who was grinning.

"Maybe we'll get to see the Odinsons again." She said.

"Yeah, that would be cool." Alexei missed Niel, as much as he hated to admit it, the guy was a pretty good friend, and pretty awesome, though he wasn't sure he missed Jordan. That young trickster was unbelievably annoying. He was always playing tricks on everyone.

"Let's keep it simple." Noah said. "Trouble Here. Please send help."

"Alright. You got it." Atticus said.

"Thanks."

"When will we know that they got the message?" Aspen asked.

"When they reply." James said. "Unfortunately, we can't be positive of it working. But hopefully the energy spikes will find their way there."

"Thanks so much, everyone." Aspen said.

"Anytime." Quincy replied.

"Let us know if you need anything else." James said.

* * *

><p><em>Aspen Victoria Elaina Stark<em>

"Hey, Aspen!" Cedric was in the lab, flipping through screens on the computer, looking extremely excited with whatever he was working on. Aspen had given him full access to her dad's files. It was a dangerous move to give Tony Stark's files to anyone, but Aspen needed to find any clues, and she trusted Cedric. (She trusted her closer friends much more, but Cedric was the only one that could translate Tony's "gibberish".)

"Hello." Aspen sighed. "Any news on the footage?"

"Unfortunately no. Anna's been plowing her way through them, but it's extremely difficult of a task, and I would also suspect rather boring."

"Right." Aspen came around to try and see what he was working on when suddenly Adrian Ward dashed around the corner from the tech part of the lab.

"Cedric! You'll never guess what I've- Oh! Aspen… hello." Adrian crossed his arms and Aspen glared.

"Hello." She replied shortly. Adrian sighed, and shook his head,

"Look. This involves you too. Cedric, I was looking through Mr. Stark's files-…"

"What?!" Aspen gasped. "I gave _you_ permission to read through my Dad's files, not Ward!"

"Aspen, your dad has like… probably fifty thousand files. I can't possibly go through all of them myself." Cedric said. "Continue, Adrian."

"I found a video message for Aspen."

"What?!" Aspen looked over at Adrian Ward in awe. "From who?"

"Your father, of course. Come see… I think it's rather important." Aspen followed Adrian and Cedric into the tech part of the lab where a large blue screen stood glowing above them with listed names of Tony's files in rows upon rows across it.

"Jarvis," Adrian spoke with a commanding voice, "Please open File 322A- For Aspen."

"Right away." Jarvis said. A video file popped up and Aspen's father appeared on the screen. Aspen gasped. He was young, handsome. His dark hair was slicked back and his goatee was neatly trimmed. His eyes shone with excitement.

"Hey, girlie!" He grinned.

"Daddy." Aspen whispered. She didn't think anyone could hear her but Adrian looked up.

"I don't know how old you are when you're watching this but right now you're twelve, and shit, if I'd known teenagers were this hard I think I would've invented a time machine to get your mother back." He smiled and shook his head. "Right now you're asleep so I'm making this video in secret just for you and Pep." He leaned back against his chair as if thinking and then smiled, "You already look so much like your mom. You're so beautiful, and so smart. And Pepper, she's wonderful. I haven't told her yet but I just got an acceptance letter from Xavier's school. She's going to scream when I give it to her tomorrow at breakfast. Xavier's going to get her to the point where she'll be able to kill us all in her sleep. Which, trust me, is not a consoling thought to me when I just last night prevented her from seeing that boy from school… what's his name? Josh? Whatever. She's only ten, she doesn't need to be having "play dates" with boys yet." He sighed and shook his head, his expression suddenly becoming serious. "Aspen, if you're watching this then one of these two things are true. Either (a.) I'm dead, or (b.) I'm missing. A is probably the more likely choice since I don't think you could ever hack my systems in the tower without my will giving you the pass code."

_You're systems in this bunker are much easier to hack, dad. _Aspen thought.

"I just want to take this time to tell you how much I love both you and Pepper. You were both such blessings to me, and in the times when I thought I might… when I was missing your mother a little too much and I might just drink again, you were the two things that kept me going. You kept me away from what would kill me, and as you're growing you're becoming more and more my beautiful princesses. Someday, I know you'll have to grow up, and it hurts me to think that that day could be coming soon. After all, next month, Aspen, you'll be a teenager, and then what? I don't want to lose you, Aspen, Pepper. You're too precious to me. You're my little girls. And losing you would be like losing… my reason to live." He paused, "So this… this must be hard." He said. "If I'm dead, I mean. And I'm sorry about all my failings." Now Aspen felt tears streaming down her cheeks. She hugged herself, trying to pull herself together but her tears just kept coming.

_Dad… Dad… I want you to come back! How can this happen to me?! Who took you? Where are you? Please…_

"I'm sorry for all those times I failed to see your side of things, for all those times I failed to understand you, or failed to teach you the right things. I'm a guy. You are both beautiful young ladies. You should be raised by your mother, not me. There is one thing that I hope I can pride myself with when I die. I hope that I don't end up like my father. Every day I strive to get away from that curse. Aspen, please strive to stay away from loving your work too much to love your family. My father never had time for me. I hope that when you look back you don't see what I do when I look back. Instead, you see love. Aspen, Pepper, I hope that when you look back you remember me fondly. I love you both, dearly, and I'm sorry for everything. Sorry things had to end the way they did, however they did. Aspen, keep learning. Someday you'll be smarter than me. Pepper, keep your sister in line, and practice your skills. Someday you'll be a brilliant X-Man… or woman… or whatever. Anyways…." Tony looked up again, tears in his eyes, "I love you…" Aspen broke into sobs and Adrian paused the video as it was fading out. Aspen tried pulling herself together, but nothing was working. She was shaking as she gasped for breath.

_Dad! You're not dead! No! I refuse to accept it! _

"Aspen." Adrian said, placing his hand on her shoulder.

"Get off me!" Aspen jerked away from him, still crying.

"Aspen." Adrian said again. She turned towards him, his dark hair and bright eyes drew her to him and she sobbed into his shoulder as he rocked her back and forth. _Look what you've done, daddy. I'm letting Adrian Ward comfort me. _

He held her tightly and let her cry, and when she was done she pulled away from him, turning away quickly as if embarrassed to look back.

"Sorry… It's just…."

"But that's not all." Cedric said, pointing to the time slot down at the bottom of the video. Aspen looked over at Adrian, confused.

"It looked like…"

"He added a video to the end recently." Adrian emphasized the word recently and Aspen frowned.

"But then…"

"Jarvis, play." Adrian said.

"Aspen, Pepper, if you're watching this…" Tony was older again. This must have been made only a few weeks ago, "I'm either (a.) dead, or (b.) missing. Dead is probably more likely considering who's coming. Look, I know this is hard, but I can't…" He looked behind him as if someone was coming, "I don't have much time. A while ago we Avengers helped Odin with the task of retrieving a god who'd kind of gone crazy. The guy was obsessed with power, hungry for world domination. With Odin's help we brought him down."

_Come on, dad… just say his name… come on… _

"Tony!" Steve's voice suddenly shouted out from somewhere. "We're under att-!"

"Shit. It's too soon." Tony breathed. "Look, kids, it's not from Asgard, okay. I know that's your first guess, but the empty realms…"

"Hello, Mr. Stark." Tony spun around.

"You! Look, you asshole! I have a family-!"

"Trust me when I say that I know this, IronMan." Aspen frowned, staring at the screen, but she couldn't see anyone. Whoever's deep voice that was, he was outside of the camera's view. Tony stood up.

"They won't play you're games."

"Oh they will, and then at last I will have Asgard as my own."

"Aspen! Pepper!" Tony gasped, spinning around again to face the camera. "Uncle Steve and I sent your armor and his shield to the bunker! Go there! Find us! Don't play his games! Don't-!" Tony was yanked from the screen's view and the camera was knocked over. "Jarvis!" Tony gasped, "Save to my files." And that was the last words on the video.

"Oh my god."

"Well, that was the most helpful information we've gotten so far." Cedric said, trying to sound a little bit encouraged.

"He was Asgardian." Aspen whispered, "But a shamed Asgardian. I think we really need Uncle Thor and Uncle Loki's insight since they were a part of this whole thing."

"They would know the answers. But if he has a grudge against the Avengers, then why hasn't he touched Thor and Loki?" Adrian asked.

"Maybe Asgard protects them. Maybe he can't get past Asgard's defenses." Aspen said.

"Hey!" Pepper ran around the corner. "Aspen your thoughts are really confusing me. What's going on?"

"Come here." Aspen whispered, "I have to show you something."

"Should we call everyone else?" Cedric asked Adrian, "This is kind of important for everyone to see." Adrian frowned, watching the two sisters talking briefly before Aspen began the video.

"Wait." He said, "Let them have their time. We can always replay it."

* * *

><p><strong>Maybe Aspen just doesn't like getting to know people. Adrian's not so bad. :) <strong>

**Thanks for reading, as always!**

**-randomblueboots**


	19. Chapter 17 Asgard

_Maggie Frigga Odinson_

"I'm tired of this nonsense." Finley breathed, throwing the golden band that she was required to wear on her head across the room. It was beginning to snow around them as she looked up at Maggie furiously. "We should be doing something, not… something that's not this!"

"Stop complaining." Jordan snapped, "You get to be Queen."

"But I don't want to be Queen of Asgard! I'm not even a full Asgardian… and…" Finley sighed and laid back on the couch in their shared common room. She let the snow rain down on her, Maggie knew she was allowing it because Finley could control her ice powers almost better than Uncle Loki could control his.

"Dad's been missing for like… weeks now…" Helena whispered. She was pale as ice, and her lips were a pale pink. She was different from the rest of them. Her powers even scared Eir, the healer of the Asgardians. Some of the younger Asgardians had taken to calling her Valkyrie because of her powers over life and death. Helena had distanced herself from everyone because of it.

"They both have." Maggie finally said, "And I'm sick of it. We need to go back to earth and get help from the other Avengers. They might know of any grudges-" The golden doors burst open and Heimdall, the all-seeing god, stepped in. It was strange to see him away from his post at the gates.

"My Lords and Ladies, I have seen something."

"About Dad?!" Niel jumped up.

"I am afraid not." Heimdall said. "It is Midgard. My vision has been blocked from many places, but I have seen that a message has been sent to us."

"From who?" Maggie asked.

"I cannot tell, but I believe the Avengers are in grave danger, just as much as the Kings and their wives."

"What did the message say?" Maddie asked.

"I believe, after translating the energy waves, it would say 'Trouble Here. Please send help.'"

"Heimdall, what would you suggest in this situation?" Finley asked. "We are the only ones left who can go to earth."

"Someone must stay here and rule Asgard." Heimdall replied. "But you do not all have to stay."

"Children?" Lady Sif entered slowly, and bowed before Maggie and Finley, "My Queens. There is a messenger at the gate. He claims to come from the Realm above the Realms."

"The Realm above the realms?!" Heimdall looked surprised, and then nodded. "It is the truth."

"But who is in the realm above the realms?" Helena whispered.

"A dark one. A god who forsook the ways of the Aesir." Sif replied. "Will you come see the messenger?"

"We will." Finley nodded. She and Maggie followed Sif and Heimdall into the great hall. There Maggie and Finley took their places in the large golden thrones at the top of the steps. Their siblings stood below them, with Sif and Heimdall.

"Bring the messenger in!" Maggie shouted. The guards at the end of the Great Hall opened the large doors and a tall young man stepped in. He was wearing a black trench coat, and black clothes underneath. He wore Asgardian leather boots and what looked like chainmail under his black shirt. He had slicked back black hair and dark brown eyes. He looked young, probably only in his late teens. He came forward to the bottom of the thrones and dramatically bowed before the Queens of Asgard.

"Tread lightly." Jordan hissed to him. He grinned, as if this was all a joke.

"My Queens…" The sarcasm in his voice made Maggie feel uncomfortable and she felt the sparks at her fingertips grow stronger. "I bring news from my Lord in the realm above the realms."

"Tell us," Finley said, "What does your Lord want?"

"What does he want?" The messenger smirked, and there was a moment where Maggie almost recognized that smirk. She wondered where she had seen it before. "Why nothing more than the thrones you sit on. My Lord desires Asgard."

"Your Lord is a fool-!" Sif gasped.

"Silence!" Maggie swung her arm. "What does he expect to give us in return for Asgard?"

"Why, your parents, and the rest of the Avengers." The young man said.

"What?" Finley stood up angrily. "How does your Lord have our parents?"

"That is a secret of the trade." The young man smiled.

"A secret that I'll beat out of you." Niel snarled.

"Shush." Maggie said, gently gripping Finley's arm and forcing her to sit down. _Who is this Lord? Sif and Heimdall seem to know him. Where did he come from? What is the realm above the realms? How come he has taken my parents? And the rest of the Avengers? What does he mean by that? _"Tell your _Lord _that he shall never have Asgard. Tell him that we will find him and destroy him if he does not return the Avengers to their homes, including our parents."

"You've made a foolish, foolish decision." The young man sighed, "But I expected nothing less from _children."_

"You rat!" Finley gasped, a swirl of snow and ice gathering around her. "You are far younger than me, for sure! I will not be treated like a child by those who are children to me!"

"Then don't act like one. Good day, my _Queens_." The young man bowed again and left the two young rulers of Asgard seething.

"My Queens." Sif said, "What will you do?"

"We must think about this." Maggie said calmly, "Fen, you and I will discuss this with the rest of our advisors."

"What about us?" Maddie asked.

"Don't worry. Once we have made a decision, we will inform you of it." Finley replied.

"Come, Lady Sif." Maggie said. "Let us gather the others. I want to learn about this 'Realm above the Realms'."

* * *

><p><em>Eric Matthew Banner<em>

"Eric!" Elsa Jean raced into the room, and he let his hands fall to his lap where he was sitting at the piano. The song he had been playing ended abruptly.

"What's wrong?"

"Anna finally found the footage we need!" Elsa Jean gasped.

"What?!" Eric jumped up.

"Come on! She won't start the footage until we're all there." Eric followed Elsa Jean into the lab where everyone else was waiting around Anna Fitz.

"Hey, Eric." Noah said.

"Alright, is everyone here?" Anna asked.

"Think so." Eric nodded, looking around. Adrian, and his team were all there and Alexei was even there in a wheel chair with Emma, his partner who seemed to always be accompanying him.

"Alright, so, there's not much to see, actually. I found one disappearance on film, and it's quite incredible, but I'm not sure… I can't find any of the others. Either Stark Tower's cameras were really messed up or these people are really good." Anna pressed play on a camera, and Eric recognized it as one of the hallways. Suddenly Maria walked in. Unfortunately there was no sound but she appeared to be talking to someone in a mic, and she held a very, very large gun of some sort. She stood in the camera's sight for some time and after a few minutes a shimmering figure appeared behind her, coming up swiftly and pressing something against her mouth. She struggled for a few minutes and then went limp. The figure set her down on the ground and then shimmered into view. She was tall, beautiful with long silver hair and bright gray eyes. She wore a simple white, skin tight, long sleeve shirt over top of a long white skirt, with a long split down her thigh to the floor. She flipped long hair over her shoulder and spoke some words into her own mic and disappeared once again. The feed stopped there.

"Holy hell." Eric breathed.

"Who the hell is that?!" Aspen asked.  
>"Yeah, the person who attacked Tony in the video was a man for sure."<p>

"Well, just as mom and dad suspected there must be more than one of them." Gray said.

"This is too confusing!" Elsa Jean groaned, "How will we ever find them in all this mess?"

"Nate." Adrian said. "Do you think you can figure out what they're saying?"

"It's a possibility. If I could have the tape I could work on it at home." Nate nodded.

"Perfect. I think this is going to be a pretty big lead if we can just figure out what they're saying."

* * *

><p><em>Maggie Frigga Odinson<em>

"This realm above the realms…is it dangerous?" Finley asked.

"As far as I can see, it is not." Heimdall said, "It is what it holds that is dangerous."

"And this god vowed revenge on all of the Avengers. That's why they're missing?" Maggie said. "So what now? What would you advise me to do? Stay here and rule Asgard, and send someone in my place to seek the true kings and the other Avengers?"

"My Queen…" Sif looked nervous, "What I would suggest is that you go. The children below need you all. If this fight really involves the realm above the realms than it is dangerous beyond anything we could possibly imagine."

"And who will rule Asgard?" Finley asked.

"If you are both to go," Fandral said, "Then you must appoint rulers in your stead while you are absent." Finley turned to her cousin and muttered,

"But who?"

"It is your choice." Hogun said, "We must not decide for you."

"Then…" Maggie looked around at her advisors. She had known them only for a little time, but she trusted all of them, and nodded slowly, "Lady Sif shall take my place as ruler of Asgard until I return with my father." Finley looked over at Maggie with a frown, Maggie smiled. She knew Sif would have been Fen's first choice as well.

"I will do my best, my lady." Sif bowed.

"And I choose Fandral." Finley said. "He shall take my place as ruler of Asgard until I return with my father." Fandral looked surprised, but then smiled and bowed as well,

"I will do what I can, just please, ladies, bring back our friends."

"Yes, indeed!" Volstagg cried.

"We will not return until we can do just that." Finley whispered.


	20. Chapter 18 God of War

**Hey, awesome followers! Thanks for sticking with this, even after breaks between chapters and stuff. Hope this one is good. I had to rewrite it because I lost the first version of it, so it's been kind of slow. But I'm glad I was forced to because it's so much better now that I've done it all over. This first part with Adrian and Aspen going to the evidence place was not in the first version, and in this one I develop Helena's powers a little bit more.**

**Thanks for reading! :D**

**-randomblueboots**

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><p><em>Aspen Victoria Elaina Stark<em>

"Good morning." A voice said from the doorway of the kitchen. Aspen jumped, and the ceramic mug she was holding to get her coffee fell from her hand and shattered to the floor.

"God dammit, Adrian!" She spun around to face the young man, and her heart fluttered the moment she saw him, but after a hesitation the anger returned, "What the hell are you doing here so early?!"

"I just… well, I get up really early anyways and I figured I'd come watch the camera feed again. What are you doing up so early?" Aspen paused, as she pulled a broom from the closet to sweep up the shattered ceramics, utterly annoyed that Adrian wasn't helping her at all even though it was his fault the mug was broken. She wasn't about to tell the annoying asshole that she couldn't sleep, mostly because of nightmares, and partway because there wasn't time. She was finishing some of the last touches on her new arc reactor, and she was repairing one of the old IronMan suits her dad had stashed here a while ago, just kind of to keep her mind off the nightmares.

"I just… I get up early." She said.

"You?" Adrian smirked, "Right. And I'm Captain America's uncle." The way he spoke about Steve irked Aspen.

"Shut up." She snapped. Adrian's gaze softened as she dumped the dustpan full of broken shards into the trash under the sink. She then grabbed another mug and began filling it with her dad's favorite strong coffee.

"Aspen, I'm sorry, I know you all miss your parents." Adrian said. "Look, I know things are going to be slow until we have help from Asgard, perhaps I can make it up to you. Will you come with me?" Aspen looked over to him with narrowed eyes.

"Where?" She asked suspiciously.

"It wouldn't be a surprise if I told you." Adrian smiled. Aspen glared.

"I'm not sure I like you enough to get in a car with you."

"Hey." Adrian frowned, "Just trust me, please. You'll like it."

"Even a little more disturbing." Aspen said, crossing her arms. Adrian groaned,

"You'll appreciate it, trust me."

"Alright, but I swear to god if you do something stupid I will kill you."

"I thought Starks were supposed to lighten the mood, not destroy it." Adrian mumbled as he led Aspen outside to the gravel driveway leading up to their bunker. His black SUV was parked not any more than a few paces away from the doorway and he strode over and opened the door for Aspen. She climbed in, setting her coffee mug in one of the cup holders and yanking on her seat belt as Adrian shut the door and came around to the driver's side. She was not exactly dressed for public, so she hoped he wasn't taking her somewhere where everyone could see her. She was, after all, Aspen Stark, the billionaire genius' daughter. The public wanted nothing more than to talk to her, especially after her father's disappearance. Right now, Aspen was wearing a sweater that was too big for her. She'd pulled it out of one of the closets in the bunker, and judging by the smell of fresh pine and military issued soap, it had been Uncle Steve's. She wore black leggings underneath the tan knitted sweater and her blue and white fuzzy slippers. Her hair was a mess, pulled back into a tangled pony tail. Strands of blond hung around her face here and there. She was sure her gray-green eyes were puffy, and had dark circles under them from lack of sleep.

Adrian on the other hand was looking sharp. His dark brown hair was combed neatly to the side, and his brown eyes shone. He wore a charcoal gray suit today, instead of his regular black one, with a burgundy tie. He ran his fingers through his dark hair before flipping on his sunglasses and starting the car. Aspen sighed, looking away from him and out the window as they drove down the bumpy dirt road towards the city.

"Watch your coffee." He said as they drove along. His voice startled her for a moment, deep and calm. She gripped her coffee tightly and sipped on it, trying to ignore him, but wondering all the while where he was taking her. Soon they were on the familiar path in the city towards Stark Tower, and she wondered how in the name of anything going there would make her feel better.

"Where are we going?" She asked again, wiping her messy hair away from her eyes.

"You'll see." Adrian sighed.

"But… I don't want to go to the tower. I don't want to ever see that place again!" She gasped. "It's too…"

"Aspen." Adrian said, looking over at her as they sat at a red light. "Trust me!" For a moment he was staring at her and Aspen groaned inwardly, thinking about how he must be disgusted by her appearance, thankfully the light saved the day.

"Green." She pointed out. Adrian focused once again on the road. They pulled up in front of where the beautiful tower once stood. Now it was a burnt, half-fallen-in building full of ash, and scorched beams of metal. Aspen stared up at it through her window, and suddenly her door was being opened by Adrian. She felt tears prick the corners of her eyes as he held out his hand to help her out. At first she scorned his touch, but her legs were shaking so bad she took his offer and gripped his hand tightly.

"Don't worry, we're not here to see the tower. I have something much happier to show you." Adrian led her carefully away from the burnt mess that had once been her home and into the little building next to it. It was a SHIELD building, and a young agent, probably a rookie, stood guard at the front desk as they entered the entry room.

"Hey, Dana." Adrian said. The young woman looked up. She looked pathetically bored, and sighed.

"Good morning, Sir."

"Just here to grab some stuff."

"Unfortunately, I'm going to have to see your badge any ways. And…" Dana looked up at Aspen, "Who's this?"

"This is…" Adrian paused, "Aspen Stark." He said as he pulled his badge out of the inside of his suit jacket.

"Visit reason?" Dana asked in a completely monotone voice, she looked positively bored.

"Evidence check." Adrian answered flawlessly, though Aspen could tell from the glint in his eye that he wasn't completely telling the truth. Dana typed something quickly into the computer, copying something off of Adrian's badge. Then she handed the badge back to him. She flipped her pink and brunette hair over her shoulder and smiled, which was a shocking grace, considering the dull state she'd seemed to be in when they walked through the doors.

"Agent Ward, you should give me a call sometime. We could get together and have dinner." Aspen knew this was a no-no, especially when speaking to your superior officers, and from the looks of it Adrian was superior. But he just frowned and waved her off,

"Not looking to date right now." He said, "Thanks for your assistance, Dana."

"No problem." Dana moaned, "Don't get visitors every day."

Adrian led Aspen to the left, which was a long hallway. There were numerous doors along the dark hallway and each was marked with letters, starting with the first door marked: A-D. The second was marked E-G, and so on for each door through the whole alphabet.

Adrian led Aspen down to the middle of the hall way to a door marked "Q-S". He slid a card out of his suit jacket pocket and swiped it at the small box next to the door. The door unlocked and together the two of them entered the long hallway of a room. This room had shelves upon shelves upon shelves of boxes, stacked all the way to the ceiling. Adrian didn't stop, he just kept walking down the hall as if he knew exactly what he was looking for. He reached the end of the hall and pulled out a fairly large box labeled: S-2D345 STARK.

"Here…" He whispered, smiling gently. "This is for you." Aspen stared down at the box he set before her on the floor.

"What is it? What is this place?"

"This is the Evidence rooms. Yes, it's located right next to the tower. We figured evidence would be safe under the close watch of the Avengers."

"So this…" Aspen frowned. "This box is full of… what?"

"Open it up and see." Adrian said. Aspen knelt on the floor and carefully pried the lid off the box. It was full of what would appear to anyone else to be junk, but on second glance was actually treasure. The first thing Aspen pulled out was a little doll. Her doll, which should have perished in the fire.

"Lila." She whispered, stroking the doll's black yarn hair. SHIELD must have taken her when they had explored the tower briefly before it was burnt to the ground. Lila had been a gift from her mother years upon years ago, before she, herself, had perished in their house fire. "Oh god." Aspen pressed the little doll against her heart, trying to push back the tears that were threatening to fall. She looked over at Adrian, who sat down on the floor with her and choked on a sob. Then she looked back into the box. The next thing she pulled out was an old arc reactor, a broken one for sure, probably from one of her dad's old missions. _A piece of my daddy's heart. _She thought, and that made everything all the more depressing, and beautiful at once.

Next, there was Pepper's stuffed puppy: Arnold. Grinning through watery eyes, Aspen held the spotted dog up for Adrian to see, and choked on the word "Essie's." Then there was one of her dad's helmets, which she laid in her lap, a lock of her mother's hair in a little plastic baggy, which made her smile. Along with these there was an old sweater that was definitely her father's, and one of his black t-shirts. Lastly there were files. One on her, one on Pepper, one on Essie, one on Tony, and one on her grandparents: Howard and Maria. She opened the folder with her father's name on it: Anthony Edward Stark. The first thing to slip out was a picture. Tony was grinning, happily holding his two daughters tightly. Aspen, wearing a blue headband and holding a cotton candy cone, and Pepper, with her hair in pigtails, was holding a snow cone. They must have been ten and eight. This was when Tony had taken them to the carnival for Pepper's birthday that one year. They were all so happy. Aspen stared down her father's happy smile and the tears burst free, slipping down her cheeks, quickly and she shuddered, clutching her doll and Pepper's puppy tightly.

"Aspen?" Adrian whispered. He gently touched her shoulder and she looked up at his perfect concerned expression.

"Thank you!" She choked, and she fell into his arms, resting her chin on his shoulder and embracing him tightly. He let her cry into his shoulder once again, and once again she wondered why she let him comfort her.

She pulled away from him and wiped away her tears, looking down at the beautiful picture once again. She closed the folder, not wanting to see any newspaper clippings, or tabloid lies. She only wanted to see her father, and these items, these beautiful little gifts Adrian had given her, they were perfect.

"I don't suppose…" she held Lila tightly, thinking. "I don't suppose you have a box for everyone?" Adrian smiled and nodded.

"We do. If you'd like we can show them, and see if they want anything from them."

"You mean I get to keep these?"

"They've done us no good, Aspen." Adrian said. "I think they should return to their rightful owners."

"Oh!" Aspen breathed. "I don't know how to…" The building suddenly shook, and the boxes around them trembled. The tremor only lasted a second or two, but Adrian looked over at Aspen with concern.

"An earthquake?"

"Not likely." Aspen frowned. Together, they dashed out of the building, Aspen clutching Arnold, Lila, Tony's helmet, arc reactor, t-shirt, sweater, and picture all in her arms. They didn't even stop to see if Dana was okay. They rushed out onto the sidewalk, Aspen nearly dropping her newfound treasures. The cause of the earth quake was quite easy to see. Ash had been blown into the air by the forced impact of something incredible. A glowing Celtic design was spread across the ash on the inside of the remnants of Avenger's Tower, and on top of that glowing design were people that Aspen hardly recognized. The armored group of individuals were looking around them in horror at the destruction, but Aspen could hardly believe she was seeing them.

"Maggie?!" She gasped. "Maddie!?"

"Penni!" the two girls cried. Aspen shoved all her things into Adrian's arms and ran towards her friends. The two oldest, Maggie, and Maddie, were dressed in beautiful Asgardian clothes. Maggie wore red and orange, with a long flowing cape of deep red, like her father's. She wore a gold band around her head. Her hair was beautiful and tied back in two tails that were flung back over her shoulders and wrapped in gold bands.

Maddie wore light blue and yellow. She did not have a gold band like Maggie, but she did have a light blue cape, and wore similar Asgardian armor. Her long dark brown hair was in braids with silver bands at the end. She had a knife at her side, but no other weapon.

Niel, Maddie and Maggie's younger brother, was dressed much like his father, with a long flowing red cape, and his father's armor. The only thing missing was Thor's great hammer, Mjolnir. Thor would never give up on insisting that Niel would be Thor in his stead, but Niel didn't believe he would ever be worthy.

Finley was beautiful, as ever. With her long strawberry blond hair down, she also wore a circlet of gold around her head. She was dressed in a flowing light blue dress, and a white cape. Her younger brother, Jordan looked more like Loki with every day that passed. He had bright green eyes, and slicked back black hair. He wore Asgardian garb as well, green black and gold, like his father. He held a golden staff in his hand, similar to his father's but much less decorated.

Helena was the one that startled Aspen. She had been so alive and beautiful last Aspen had seen her, but now she seemed almost dead. She was pale as ice, with pale pink lips, and big blue eyes. She wore a long purple cape with a hood. Her strawberry blond hair was French braided back behind her head, as far as Aspen could tell with her hood on.

Aspen gave them all hugs, even Helena who didn't seem to be so eager to be affectionate, which was very strange for the young sixteen year old. Adrian stood to the sidelines, still looking on in wonder, but Aspen seemingly forgot him.

"What happened here?!" Jordan glared around at the ruins of the tower. Maggie nodded.

"Yes, what is going on?"

"We… we don't really know." Adrian said. He was still holding all of Aspen's trinkets, extremely careful not to drop any of them into the ash.

"We came home from Asgard and the tower was on fire." Aspen breathed. "Dad, and everyone else, they're all gone! They disappeared!"

"What?" Niel looked horrified, along with the rest of his siblings and cousins.

"Then… we won't receive any help here." Finley said.

"Help? What do you mean?"

"It seems we all have quite similar issues." Maggie said.

"Our parents disappeared as well, around a week and a half ago." Helena whispered.

"Then… they can't help us." Aspen sighed. "You wouldn't happen to know anything about the god Dad and the other Avengers helped Odin bring down, would you?" Maggie grinned.

"Actually…" She said, "I can tell you all about that."

"No." Aspen breathed, "Really?"

"It looks like we'll all be working together, so let us go see the others." Niel said.

"Where are you all staying?" Jordan asked.

"In a bunker outside of town." Adrian said, "Come on, we can take my car." He led them back to the street where his car was parked, and gently handed Aspen back her things before getting into the driver's seat. Aspen chose to sit in the back next to Maggie and Maddie. Finley sat in the front with Adrian, and soon they were talking as if they were old friends, which for some reason frustrated Aspen.

"So, who is he?" Maggie asked.

"That's Skye and Grant Ward's son." Aspen sighed. "Adrian."

"Adrian? Wow!" Maddie grinned, "He grew up… real nice. How well do you _know _him, Penni?" Aspen felt her cheeks burn.

"I… we're not even really friends." Aspen muttered, then she realized Maddie implied that she knew Adrian. "How do you know him?"

"Penni!" Maggie gasped. "You don't remember?!"

"No… what are you talking about?" Aspen asked.

"Adrian and Skye stayed with us in the bunker when HYDRA was still after us." Maddie grinned.

"You guys were like best friends. How do you not remember that?" Maggie hissed.

"I…" _Adrian. Adrian Ward. Adrian Philip Ward. I remember…. _It had been years upon years since she had seen Adrian, and now they were both grown up. She wondered if… if he remembered her. _What if he does? Oh, I've been so awful to him, and what he remembers of me in the past when we were little was so different than the way I'm treating him now. _She looked over at Adrian again. He had pulled off his suit jacket and was wearing an old fashioned gray suit vest underneath, with his burgundy tie, and his white shirt sleeves rolled up to his elbows. His dark hair, was falling into his eyes, but he kept swiping it back automatically, as if completely used to the gesture. His brown eyes were concentrated on the road, but he kept flicking them back towards Finley now and then, who was telling him about their time in Asgard. Once again it felt like a little jab in her stomach, and she turned away, her cheeks burning again. Why couldn't she get along with him like Finley seemed to be? _Oh I don't know, maybe because he threw you in SHIELD detention cells and then forced you to work with him by stealing the thumb drive which you had stuffed in your bra! _

"You remember him now?" Maddie asked.

"Yes." Aspen nodded slowly, trying to think. Did Adrian remember her? Maybe she should just ask.

* * *

><p>Adrian finally pulled into the driveway to the bunker, a long bumpy ride down the dirt road led them all to their home. Aspen pulled herself out of the car, her face still burning up. She carried her treasures in her arms, clutching them tightly. Adrian was at her side within moments, not bothering to help any of the others.<p>

"Do you need help?" He asked, gesturing to her full arms. She shook her head, unable to say anything to him. He crossed his arms. He had left his suit jacket in the car and his sleeves were still rolled up. As he crossed his arms, the white shirt tightened around his shoulders and upper arms. Aspen looked away.

"I'm fine." She said.

_Aspen. _Essie's voice in her head was singing. _I can hear your thoughts!_

_Shut up, Essie! Shut up! _Aspen turned away from Adrian and towards the door of the bunker, jabbing in the security code on the pad with her thumb, the door unlocked and swung open. The moment she did Pepper came dashing out.

_I know what you're thinking! _She sang in Aspen's head. But suddenly she cut off when she saw the group climbing out of Adrian's car.

"Maddie!? Maggie?!" She screamed, (aloud as well in everyone's heads). Adrian winced at the shrill sound, but Aspen grinned. "Everyone! Oh!" Pepper ran and embraced everyone, and then called everyone else with her mind. Everyone came running to see the new arrivals. It was a joyful reunion. Everyone greeted one another and once everyone was settled down in the main room of the bunker Aspen told all the Asgardians what happened since they had left Asgard to return to Midgard. Everyone else helped fill in here and there, and when she was done she looked over to Maggie expectantly.

"You said you know… you know who took them."

"I do." Maggie nodded. "Not personally, but…"

"We know who did it." Finley said.

"Who?!" Irina gasped. Everyone was gathered around, sitting on couches, and standing around the couches. Adrian's whole team was there, including his brother Nate, who turned out to be quite the class clown despite his reputation one of the best negotiators in SHIELD. Naomi Barnes stood next to her brother, Gray, and on her other side stood Noah. They looked like they had just come from the training room. Irina sat below Noah on the sofa, and he had tried to gently put one of his hands on her shoulder but she had pulled away angrily. _Jealousy destroys. _Aspen thought. She'd read that somewhere. Kate was lying across one of the couches, her legs draped across her two younger brothers, and the three of them were having a consistent battle between legs off the couch and legs on the couch. It was almost a wrestling match between Kate's legs and the two younger boys. Alexei was also there along with Emma, his partner. He was out of his wheelchair at last, but still had trouble walking for long periods of time, so he was sitting on the couch. Emma, in her white uniform, stood above him, arms crossed and hair in a thick blond braid. Eric and Elsa sat next to Irina. Aspen almost smiled at how much they looked alike. Where Irina had her mother's fiery red curls, Eric and Elsa Jean had their father's dark hair, and Elsa Jean had her mother's wavy curls, which were tied back in a ponytail.

"A long while ago there was a god who longed for power. Before Dad and Uncle Loki were even born this god seized the throne of Asgard and took control. He was a jealous, vicious Aesir, and with the power of Asgard behind him he began to take the rest of the realms as his own. However, he had made the mistake of sparing our grandfather." Maggie said.

"Odin rose to power once again, with the rest of the realms backing him up. They destroyed the god and banished to him into what the Aesir call a 'pocket realm'." Jordan said.

"A pocket realm?" Noah asked.

"Yes." Helena had a suddenly scary look to her, she seemed to be almost in a dreaming state. "Long ago, when the Yggdrasil came to be, and just when Urd, Verdani, and Skuld began to spin the fabric of fate the realms came to be. There are nine realms, Muspelheim, Niflheim, Nidavellir, Svartalfheim, Jotunheim, Midgard, Vanaheim, Alfheim, and Asgard. These nine realms were great, but between them, between the branches of Yggdrasil that they rested upon, there were pocket realms- empty places that belonged to no one."

"Anyways…." Finley looked nervously over at her sister, who appeared to be almost in a trance. "Odin and the rest of the realms banished the Aesir to one of the greater pocket realms, which they called the 'Realm Above the Realms'."

"The Fates still speak." Helena muttered. Finley looked over at her with a frown.

"Shush, dear." She said gently, gripping her hands. "It's alright, we're back home. You don't need to listen anymore."

"The Fates still speak." Helena said again.

"What?" Eric frowned. Aspen looked over at Helena again. She knew her next question for Maddie and Maggie was what was wrong with the young woman. _What's going on, Essie? _She asked in her sister's mind. _Can you see what's wrong with Helena?_

_I don't understand. Her thoughts are all jumbled. It's almost like she's listening to something very distant. She also has an incredible power in her, but I can't comprehend what it is. _

_Strange._

"The Fates still speak, but they cannot see what to weave next." Helena whispered, looking up at her sister and brother worriedly. "Someone is going to die."

"Alright!" Finley gently pulled her sister into standing position, and led her from the room, but her last words still sent chills through Aspen's spine, and seemed to affect everyone else negatively as well. _Someone is going to die…. What did you see, Essie? _

_Nothing! It's so strange! I wonder what's wrong! _

"I'm sorry." Jordan said, "Back to our story."

"Well, after a while, the Aesir we're talking about, he broke loose from his prison. Fifteen years ago he once again waged war on Asgard, for revenge, and he was furious. He desired nothing more than to have blood spilled, and to have all of Yggdrasil for himself." Maggie said.

"Odin knew he couldn't defeat him by himself, so he called on his sons for help. With his sons the rest of the Avengers came. Only with help from Midgard's mightiest heroes was Odin able to put down this Aesir and destroy and hopes of him escaping that pocket realm ever again." Maddie nodded.

"You'd think he'd have learned his lesson." Niel mumbled. "Should've killed him when they had the chance."

"Yes, because apparently he's gotten out. This time, he's not going to let the Avengers slip away. He's going to destroy them if we don't get to them first." Adrian said.

"Actually, that's not the way he works. He wants to rule. He needs to. He craves nothing more than power. He won't give up the Avengers quite yet, they're good leverage, but if we don't give in, he could begin killing them one by one." Maggie said. Finley returned to the room, Helena was nowhere to be seen. She whispered something to Jordan who nodded grimly and then they returned back to their tale.

"How do you know he wants the realms? What do you mean 'unless we give him what he wants'?" Kate asked.

"We received a message from him shortly after we got yours." Finley said.

"In the form of a young man… there was something so strange about him… he seemed so…"

"Familiar!?" Finley gasped.

"Yes! He seemed familiar to you too?!" Maggie grinned.

"Yes! I couldn't quite place it."

"Me neither. Anyways. He came and gave us this message: His Lord would return our parents if we would give him Asgard."

"What?" Aspen breathed. "So it's true then? He has Dad, and the rest of them."

"Who is _he_, exactly?" Gray asked with a frown.

"His name is Tyr." Jordan whispered, "God of War."

_The Fates still speak, but they cannot see what to weave next. Someone is going to die. _


	21. Chapter 19 What's the plan, sir?

**Another scene I had to write all over again was this one with Emma and Alyosha. But again, it's so much better this way. So, no biggie. Just wait until next chapter, guys! It's going to be amazing! **

**-randomblueboots**

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><p><em>Alexei Romanoff-Barton<em>

"Are you hungry?" Emma led him into her house, to the table in her small kitchen. They walked carefully, so he wouldn't hurt himself anymore than he already was. Emma was very gentle, and he loved her for it. She had helped him so much over the past days since he'd returned home. He had not wanted to burden his sister with his suffering. She had enough on her mind already, and he didn't want her to worry for him. Emma was kind enough to step in and help, even though he hadn't asked.

She led him to her table and set him down in one of the chairs. Then she went and grabbed a bag of pretzels and a glass of water. Setting these things before him she sat across from him and watched him eat.

"What do you think about this 'Tyr'?" He asked after swallowing and gulping down some water. The awkward silence was making him feel weird. Besides, Emma was just sitting there staring at him.

"Oh, I don't know." She murmured as he took another pretzel. She was still starting at him intently, as if memorizing his face. Then she smiled, as if something were funny.

"What?" Alexei grinned, "Do I have something on my face? I mean, besides the scars and stuff." She sighed, resting her chin on her fist.

"No." She whispered, "I'm just remembering."

"Remembering what?"

"Remembering this. Making sure I remember this, I mean."

"Why? I'm just eating pretzels." Alexei shrugged and Emma laughed and shook her head.

"It doesn't matter. You look so nice and happy when you don't have that ever-present frown plastered across your face." She leaned forward and gently ran her thumb across one of his eyebrows. He frowned. "See, there it is." Emma sighed.

"But… I'm confused… why…?" Then Emma leaned forward and kissed him lightly on the lips. He stared at her in shock as she fell back into her chair, her cherry lips turned up in a smirk. She was beautiful, her long blond hair was down in a soft halo around her beautiful pale face. Her blue eyes shone brightly, and she was still wearing her white SHIELD issued uniform. After a moment he realized he was staring, and knew he had to say something, but he couldn't think straight, and the first thing that came out of his mouth was:

"What…what was that for?" Emma rolled her eyes.

"What do you think it was for, stupid?" He stared at her. He couldn't even comprehend what was going on in her head, and he wished for a moment that he had Essie's powers. Why was she making him guess? What if he guessed wrong? The obvious guess would be that she loved him, but what if this was some sick game?

"Emma…? Do you…?" He paused. You never knew what could upset a woman, and that was the truth. They were just as much of a mystery to him as any of the content in top-secret SHIELD files. He stood up, unsteadily. Emma walked quickly around the table to help him, but he didn't want help. He needed to understand how she felt, now was as good a time as any. "Emma." He said, taking her hands. She looked up at him, eyes wide. "Do you love me?" The words didn't seem to shock her, or anger her. She smiled, gently touching her thumb to his chin.

"More than you could ever imagine." She laughed softly, like this was funny. "It's stupid really… We were so blind. We always used to fight." She paused, biting her lip. "But… I think… I think I've always loved you." The words hit him right in the chest, and he leaned forward, pulling her into his arms and kissing her. It was silly, but in that moment he couldn't think about anything else. Then his legs shook, and pain shot through him. He knew he couldn't stand any longer. She pulled away, looking over him worriedly.

"Are you alright?" She whispered gently.

"No." He breathed. He was hurting all over, but not only that, he couldn't breathe. He could hardly believe any of this was happening. Emma, his own beautiful Emma, loved him.

"Come sit down." She led him to the living room and he collapsed onto the sofa. "Do you need anything?" She asked. He looked up at her and spoke nothing but truth.

"I need you."

"Alyosha." She breathed, and he pulled her onto his lap, gently pressing his hand to her cheek and pulling her lips to his. The kiss became more passionate as she began unbuttoning his shirt, and then she paused, running her hand down his bare chest and across healing wounds. "I don't want to hurt you." She whispered, inches away from him. He rested his hand on her shoulder, rubbing his index finger in circles on her neck.

"You're not going to hurt me." He promised, gently taking her hand in his. He leaned in, kissing her again, forgetting the burning pain of each wound, and focusing completely on Emma Everett.

* * *

><p><em>Aspen Victoria Elaina Stark<em>

"Fury." Aspen sighed, "Why am I not the least bit surprised."

"Stark," Fury glared, "I should be the one not surprised. You're just like your father."

"What's going on, Adrian?" Aspen frowned. They stood in Fury's office. Fury was behind his desk, and Adrian sat near him in one of the chairs. Aspen was standing at the end of the room, closer to the door.

"I brought you both together because I think it's important that we talk about our next plan of action. Since the Avengers are officially working with SHIELD now, I figured it'd be best to bring you and Director Fury here together to talk about what's going on. Besides, the Director needs to be filled in."

"May I remind you that I am not anywhere near being a leader. That's Noah's job-" Aspen was cut off as the doors opened and Noah walked into the office as well.

"Good afternoon." He nodded, "Colonel, Aspen, Agent Ward."

"Mr. Rogers." Fury stood. "Pleasure." He held out his hand.

"How come I didn't get a handshake?" Aspen muttered.

"Aspen…" Adrian moaned.

"Shut up." Aspen hissed.

"Alright, so. What's the meaning of this little meeting?" Noah asked.

"As I was just explaining to Aspen," Adrian began, "I brought you all here so that we could catch up the Director, and then plan our next move. You and Aspen have kind of taken on the whole leadership of the Avengers-"

"Woah! The Avengers?" Noah laughed out loud, "I wouldn't call us the 'Avengers'. We're just kids." Nicholas Fury gave him a skeptical expression.

"Really? Because last I recall your sister, Miss Banner, Young-Miss Stark, and Miss Romanoff-Barton came bursting in here in full costume fighting like they were a team." Noah glared.

"That was a one-time thing." He said, "We're not heroes!" Fury stood up, and looked Noah right in the eyes.

"Noah Rogers. You are heroes, not because you were born to be heroes, like many assume, and not because you're destined to be heroes, but because you've chosen to be heroes. You've done nothing but fight for the safe return of your parents. Now here we are… who are you- who are we- if not heroes?"

"But-"

"I'm not here to talk about the Avengers Initiative, though… that conversation may come sooner than you think. Right now, I need to hear what we know so far." Noah nodded slowly, and everyone began filling Director Fury in. They told him about how the Odinsons had arrived and how they told them that Tyr wanted Asgard in return for the safety of their parents. Fury listened intently, frowning. When they were finished he looked over at Adrian.

"As head of this mission on SHIELD's side of things, Ward, what do you suggest?"

"I would suggest, sir, that we trick this 'Tyr'. Tell him we'll give him what he wants, and when he's fooled we can take him by surprise-"

"That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard." Aspen snorted.

"Shut up, Stark." Fury said calmly. Aspen glared, but shut her mouth.

"If we can trick him into thinking he's getting what he wants, he might release the Avengers under the assumption that he has control of Asgard."

"Again, that's idiotic, and could potentially kill my father." Aspen snapped, "I object."

"Shut up, Stark." Fury said again.

"But, sir…"

"Goddammit!" Fury snapped, "How many times do I have to tell you and your father to shut your goddamn mouths?" Aspen glared down at her feet.

"Say he does fall for the trick… what then?" Noah asked.

"I… I haven't worked out the details… yet." Adrian said, "I think it's safe to assume that he'd be pretty angry. We'd have to fight him eventually…"

"Sir, if I may share my opinion that is the stupidest plan I have ever heard of in my life." Aspen said.

"Of course, that's your opinion, Stark." Fury sighed. "You are after all… a Stark…"

"Do you have a better idea?" Adrian snapped.

"Yes, I do, actually."

"Please, feel free to share it with us, Miss Stark." Director Fury said, waving his arm impatiently.

"It would be far more appropriate to send a message back to Tyr. We need to have proof that our parents are alive." Aspen said, "If we don't have proof, then how do we know he's not playing us?"

"Aspen does have a point." Noah said.

"Thank you."

"It's too risky." Adrian snapped. "What if he gets angry?"

"He's not going to get angry! It's a reasonable part of negotiations! Proof!" Aspen replied.

"He's the god of war! Gods of war always get angry when you step over the line!" Adrian replied.

"He's not an actual god, you asshole, he's an Aesir- like Thor, and secondly, it's not stepping over the line! It's a reasonable request! Since he's the god of war he'll know how it works!"

"You're so naïve! It doesn't always work that easily, Aspen-"

"Yeah, well, you're an idiot! You don't even have half a plan, it's more like… 12% of a plan."** (guys... guys... please get this reference.)  
><strong>

"12% of a… excuse me! I'm sorry it takes more than one day to formulate a plan and 12%, really? I'd say it was more like 50%. Which is much better than yours. Yours is just an idea, it's not even really a plan!"

"Actually, I do have a plan, thank you very much. It'll be much like sending a message to Asgard, except using their energy registers instead."

"Well, gee, you're so smart, maybe you can figure out how to obtain world peace instead of working in vain to save your father-"

"WHAT?!"

"You heard me!"

"You little SHIT!" Aspen screamed, diving forward to tear off the little asshole's face. "I'll fucking kill you!"

"ENOUGH!" Fury bellowed. Aspen and Adrian froze. "I've had enough of you motherfucking idiots! Get the hell out of my office! I don't want to see either of your faces again until I've made a decision about this!" Aspen felt tears stinging at the corners of her eyes, not because of Fury's screaming, but because of Adrian's stinging words. _Instead of working __**in vain **__to save your father. _Noah looked taken aback all together. Adrian looked hurt.

"Yes, sir." Aspen whispered.

"NOW GET OUT!"

"Yes, sir." Adrian nodded.

"Not you, Rogers. You're staying here. I need your help making a decision, since you're obviously more of an adult that those two."

"Yes, sir."

Adrian and Aspen entered the hallway of SHIELD HQ. Adrian looked over to Aspen, whose head was hung low and she was hugging herself tightly.

"Aspen, I'm-"

"Leave me alone, faithless jerk." She dashed away, down the hall, not wanting him to see her tears. She was going to find her father, if it was the last thing she did.

* * *

><p><em>Maggie Frigga Odinson<em>

"So…" Maggie found Aspen cowering in the corner of her shared room with Essie. "What happened?"

"Adrian's a fucking asshole, Maggie! You don't know him the way I know him now! He just said that fighting to find my father was in vain." Maggie frowned, she doubted that that was all there was to the conversation, there was probably more to it then Aspen was sharing.

"Well, that is a stupid thing to say, but Adrian is a guy. He doesn't get things like you and I do. Besides, when guys are frustrated they say stupid-ass things. I'm sure he didn't mean it." Maggie knelt down and wrapped her arm around her best friend's shoulder. "Did he say anything after that?"

"Yeah, he said 'Aspen, I'm-' and then I told him to leave me alone. That was after Fury kicked us out of his office for arguing." _So they were arguing. _Maggie sighed. It was as she suspected. Aspen had inherited that from her father, she was stubborn as hell, and once she decided she disliked someone then she'd dislike them for all eternity.

"Well, are you going to forgive him?" Maggie asked, "After all we are supposed to be a team."

"Maggie!" Aspen gasped, "Do you know what he said to me! He basically said that everything we're doing is pointless, that dad's probably dead! Why would he say something like that?!" Aspen groaned.

"But, Aspen." Maggie frowned, "You like him." Aspen froze, and turned towards her friend, her green/gray eyes wide with horror.

"What?! How… Of course I don't! He's a jerk, he's an asshole, he's not even that... good looking…" She paused when she saw Maggie's face, "Okay, maybe he is pretty good looking, but looks don't matter. He's a jerk! I do not 'like' him!"

"Pepper says that subconsciously…"

"I do not 'like' Adrian Ward!" Aspen seethed, "He's just an idiot who's supposed to be helping me find my dad, when really he's just making stupid decisions."

"Aspen…"

"Hey, guys…" Katie knocked and opened the door quickly, peeking in. "Director Fury and Noah are here. They've decided that we need to make an executive decision about what do next."

"Alright." Maggie nodded, "We'll be right there." As soon as Katie left she turned to Aspen. "Come on, Penni, we need to work together as a team!"

"I know." Aspen sighed, "I just… I can't talk to Adrian Ward right now."

Luckily for Aspen Adrian wasn't there. Fury informed Maggie and the others that Adrian had a very pressing matter that called him away for a few days, though Maggie seriously doubted there was any pressing matter. Aspen's whole face was burning red when Maggie looked over at her, though she couldn't tell if it was from shame or anger that Adrian escaped so easily. Probably the latter, knowing Aspen. She was, after all, her father's daughter.

Nick explained the whole argument between Aspen and Adrian, and how Adrian wanted to trick Tyr right away, whereas Aspen wanted definite proof that their parents were alive. Though Maggie appreciated Adrian's hard work, she had to agree with Aspen.

"Mr. Rogers and I have decided that the best way to settle this small debate between Agent Ward and Miss Stark is to have a vote. Though, I myself am more inclined to sending a message, these are your parents and you're all very smart. I think it's reasonable to have you all decide together."

"So…" Noah smiled over at Naomi. Maggie watched as Irina glared at him. "All in favor of Adrian's idea?" There was utter silence. Maggie understood. Adrian's idea wasn't very well developed, and everyone wanted desperately to know that their parents were well. "All in favor of sending a message to receive proof?"

"Aye!" Was the resounding clash of their voices. Aspen looked up with an arrogant grin.

"I knew it. I knew it was a better plan." She looked over at Fury with a smug look. "I told you. I told you this one was better." Fury groaned.

"I swear to god, Stark…"

"I'll call mom and dad and tell them what to do." Gray said. Everyone nodded in agreement.

"Alright, it looks like this little plan is working. Let's get to work. Miss Stark, if I could please have a word." Fury led Aspen away from the crowd. Maggie wondered what that was all about. She wondered a lot of things lately. Things had changed so much since she'd left for Asgard. Sometimes she wondered who these people were that she had once loved as a family.

* * *

><p><em>Aspen Victoria Elaina Stark<em>

"Coulson?" Aspen whispered. The figure in the wheelchair looked up with a smile.

"Aspen Stark…" He said it as if he knew she would come. "How are you?"

"I'm… I'm alright. How are you?"

"I've been better, but seeing you here is a nice surprise." He gestured for her to come sit down next to him. She did as he asked, a little nervous. She hadn't seen Coulson since the accident when he lost his leg. "Adrian has told me all about you."

"He… he has?" Aspen frowned.

"Yes. He says you've grown into quite the woman. He said he didn't expect a Stark to be so… how'd he put it….? Infuriating?"

"I'm sorry." Aspen whispered. "I'm really stubborn… I'm a lot like Dad."

"I don't think that's what he meant." Coulson paused thoughtfully. "So… what brings you here?"

"I… I just came to visit. I know you don't get to many visitors, especially now that all the Avengers are missing."

"Yes, Adrian's been telling me about that too. It seems like an awful sort of business."

"How well do you know Adrian, Coulson?"

"Ohhh…" Coulson frowned, "He's… well… very well….We're very good friends."

"What's he like? I mean, when he's not being an idiotic asshole?" Coulson laughed out loud, and then sighed,

"I think you know the answer to that question, Miss Stark." So… Adrian must have told Coulson about their little trip to the Evidence place. Yes, she had seen a wonderful person in Adrian that day. She wished it had lasted. Unfortunately dreams don't come true too often.

"Well, I was just..."

"Granddad, I got you your newspaper and coffee on the way…" Adrian Ward stood in the doorway, holding a newspaper under his arm and a coffee mug in his right hand. In his left he held two sugar packets. "A-Aspen?"

"Adrian. Give me those." Phil Coulson chuckled as Adrian handed him his things, setting the coffee and sugars gently on the table next to Coulson. "I'll let you two work this out in the hallway." Aspen followed Adrian out into the hallway.

"Aspen!" Adrian whispered, his eyes wide with surprise. "What are you doing here?"

"I-I came to visit Director Coulson." Aspen muttered. Adrian seemed to regain his composure and he sighed, shaking his head.

"Look, Aspen, I just want you to know, about the other day… I'm so, so sorry. I didn't mean for it to come out that way. It was just terrible. It was a horrible thing to say, and I don't think I'll be able to make it up to you, but just so you know, I'll never stop trying to find your Dad… not until the day I die… or I mean, until he's found. Which… which will hopefully be soon…"

"Hey." Aspen shrugged. "It's fine. We were both angry." He smiled.

"I'm glad it's alright. I think if we get to know each other better we might actually be friends."

"Maybe…" Aspen nodded.**  
><strong>


End file.
